A month ago I finished running the first pass of my online positive personal development course, which is thoroughly grounded in scientific research and inspired by both Western positive psychology and the Eastern tradition of Ikigai. I’ve been a bit busy since then with some in-person events in both France and the UK, but now have the time to reflect on what went well and look forward.
The first pass had a friendly group of 18 people who engaged in different ways and to different extents, from around the world with different backgrounds, different priorities and different challenges. So, difference is definitely a theme! Some participants were keen to deal with work-specific challenges, others more concerned with work-life balance, and still others looking at how to deal with change in their lives. The course was able to accommodate all this through a flexible approach, and unlike some of the rather impersonal online courses available elsewhere I could tailor subsequent sessions to meet the particular priorities that arose.
We moved from reflections on fairly simple aspects of positive living such as creating a list of joy through to some more intensive activities asking people to reflect deeply on their values and strengths, in what one course participant described as a thoroughly coherent and cumulative approach. And as for feedback, participants were overwhelmingly positive about the course itself and what they had gained.
“The course was easy to fit into my busy schedule but in that short time I learnt a lot about myself and where and who I want to be, explored my strengths, joys and moments of mindfulness and learnt how I can use them to overcome my challenges. The course provided the time and space to practise and apply what I learned. The follow-up coaching session at the end of the course was a great opportunity to discuss how I can personally take the learning forward and apply in my day today life after the course is over (rather than forgetting about it). It was a thought provoking few weeks of my life with a lot of reflection and opportunity to build new practices.”
(Dr Nellinne Perera, lecturer in psychology)
From my own perspective, I really enjoyed putting this short course together, not only thinking about the ideas and translating them into practical exercises but also working with my original area of expertise in music psychology to use reflective and motivational music, choosing suitable images to illustrate my concepts (more on this shortly!), and having the chance to apply everything I learned at the start of the year in terms of technology. I also enjoyed using my own strengths of flexibility and creativity to adapt things as we went along, from introducing pre-recorded content to the introduction of individual coaching sessions.
So far so good, and now to business. The next version of this introductory course, now called Rebalance Your Life, is starting on 5 May at 09:00 UTC / 10:00 BST online. Bookings are open now, so think about signing up yourself or forwarding to others you think might benefit.
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