In my final blog post for this class I am going to be explaining some of the main take aways I am going to have. I have never enjoyed an English class more and am grateful to have had this class.
Before the beginning of this class, I wanted nothing to with writing. In high school, I always struggled in all of my English classes and found it so hard to get a decent grade on a paper. Throughout this class, I found that writing shouldn’t be forced in a way that would make me dread doing it. My professor this semester motivated us into slowly starting a writing process. I completed two formal assignments and dove into new ways of writing. Some new writing styles I worked on were reflection, composing scenes, and found poetry. Towards the beginning of this class, the main focus was conducting a scene. We wrote about scenes in the present, past, and even did a counterfactual part that changed the way our scenes played out. One informal assignment that I really enjoy was adding a counterfactual element to the story The Yellow Wallpaperwritten by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. We read the story then added a decision into it that changed how the how rest of the scene played out. I believe my descriptive writing has improved a lot considering I never used it prior to this course. I have learned a lot over the past couple of months and had fun doing it. In this class, I enjoyed our in-class discussions the most because no one was judgmental, and everyone had something interesting to say. I will have a lot I am going to take away from having this class but mostly I learned that writing isn’t a chore and now I enjoy doing it. I have started writing in a journal every night to make sure I don’t lose what I learned from this class.
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To conclude the posts dedicated to my last formal assignment, I wanted to include my findings section. In this section I explain how the “three good things” project improved my well-being and how it had a positive effect on my mental state.
Findings In this section I will prove “three good things” improved my well-being by disusing these three points. According to the PERMA model, our happiness is determined through five categories. Positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishments. My first point would be my accomplishments and how they made me feel. Another point would be the social relationships that I have built. Lastly, by showing positive emotion and how it has brought forth my inner optimism. I chose to talk about accomplishments because to me, there is no better feeling then handing in a test or an assignment that you worked so hard on. During the week I worked on the “three good things” I had multiple assignments due and I appreciated that feeling when I finished a task. My one entry was “Was productive: I finished a paper that is due Friday and I love the feeling of being productive and the feeling of accomplishment.” This was within the first two days of starting this project and already I knew what was important to me. Next, my relationships such as my family, played a big part in my well-being. They are my motivation and support through everything and this study showed me to never take them for granite. Finally, positive emotion showed throughout most of my journal entries. I looked at things with an optimistic view and suddenly things did not seem that bad. An entry that connects with this would be “Had work: I don't love work, but I try and make the best of it.” After really learning about these five elements, I go through my days now connecting each part of it to a different element. I wish to focus more on the meaning aspect because everyone needs some meaning in their lives. Adding to my writing process during my research project, I wanted to add my Literature review section from my paper to show the statistical side of my work. This section explains gratitude, well- being and the PERMA model that was previous explain in my blog post.
Literature Review Stated in the Positive Psychology Center, Dr. Martin E.P. Seligman is the founder of positive psychology and has written over 300 scholarly articles on this topic. Positive psychology is “the scientific study of the strengths that enable individuals and communities to thrive. The field is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play” (Positive Psychology Center). An aspect that takes part in positive psychology is well-being. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,well-being is a positive result that is meaningful for people and for any different parts of a community, because it tells us that people see that their lives are getting better, and well-being is important for the individual. Another key aspect within positive psychology would be gratitude. Benedictine monk, Br. David Steindl-Rast, believes that gratitude can be broken down into two parts. One being appreciationand the other being that gratitude is gratis. Appreciationis when you recognize that something means something to you (Team, The Gratefulness). The second quality is gratitude is gratisand that is when something is given to you at no cost (Team, The Gratefulness). Regarding positive psychology, many people believe it is real and means something but just as many people believe it is fake and they are the only thing controlling their own happiness.As stated in the positive psychology program, the PERMA modelwas created by Martin Seligman. The PERMA model was made to show that our well-being consists of multiple elements and if we follow them we can live “a life of fulfillment, happiness, and meaning” (The PERMA Model). The Harvard Health Publishing blog showed that many different experiments took place to see if gratitude improves well-being. Two psychologists, Dr. Robert A. Emmons and Dr. Michael E. McCullough, conducted a study that required the volunteers to write down what they were grateful for (Harvard Health Publishing). This was similar to the “three good things” practice and they found positive feedback with this experiment but only regarding age (Harvard Health Publishing). Within the same study, they found that “middle-aged divorced women who kept gratitude journals were no more satisfied with their lives than those who did not” (Harvard Health Publishing). Through my own experiences with the “three good things” exercise, I found myself noticing things I already do that works towards improving my well-being. Whether studies show that gratitude helps one’s well-being or no, it had a positive effect on me. |
Inspiration"Step into a scene and let it drip from your fingertips"- MJ Bush Archives
December 2018
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