Projects at work

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I’m all back into work. A lot of things are happening at the moment. I had written that one of my projects here in Hamburg is to write my doctoral dissertation. The dissertation will be on a topic in the field of Positive Psychology. Positive Psychology is quite a new branch of psychology. Some researchers thought that it was about time to do research not only on the question how mentally ill people could be helped, but also on the issue how “normal” people could be happier and make more out of their lives. One astonishing thing I found was that researchers seem to confirm many of the assumptions Buddhism made more than 2,000 years ago. I had read a lot about Buddhism after the European Buddhist Youth Festival that I had attended in December, and the parallels were stunning. For example, a researcher found out that by doing the loving kindness meditation, people experience more positive emotions, which in turn leads to increased mindfulness, purpose in life, social support or decreased illness symptoms. So research confirms what Buddhists have known for a long time!

As for my doctoral dissertation, I’m interested in the influence that positive emotions have on people’s performance. I am convinced that they can influence things positively, but interrelations are not as simple as they might appear at first glance. I’ll let you know more about it once I know more myself. Currently, I’m doing literature research. And believe me, there is a lot to read and to summarise in the end. That means that I spent my last two weekends just working. I found a professor at a university in Berlin who agreed to be in charge of the project. I was all happy about that because he is a well-known researcher with an international background.

On Tuesday, I will fly to Copenhagen for a couple of days to attend the European Conference on Positive Psychology. Many of the famous researchers will be there, including Barbara L. Fredrickson (who wrote the book “Positivity” that I can highly recommend for those of you who are interested in positive emotions), Mihalyi Czikszentmihalyi (the researcher who first described the “Flow” phenomenon), Howard Gardner (who is famous for his theory of multiple intelligences), and many others.

I’ll be back home for only four days, then I’ll fly to Australia. First, I will spend a week in Newcastle with Monica and Scott. I look forward to seeing many good friends that I’ve been missing for a long time now. And after that, I will continue to Melbourne in order to attend the International Congress on Applied Psychology. We have prepared one poster with research results from our company, and I will conduct three presentations on different topics.

So you can see there is a lot of research going on in my company, which I find most exciting. Especially because the work there combines the research with practical work with customers. All I can say is that I think I have the most awesome job I can imagine 😊.

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Photos

Manu & Katha
I've known Manu for 22 years now. We were in the same class during high school.

Manu, her husband Patrick
... and friends

Manu & Patrick
... dancing the waltz together.

The wedding cake
Finally one that did not only look nice, but also tasted just fantastic.

Fruit for dessert
Not only nice to eat, but also nice to look at!

Dagi & Katha
Manu's old friend Dagi and I at Lake Constance the day after the wedding.

Comments

[Heather]

I came across your blog by accident, but I really enjoyed your post. I thought the study done on Buddhism and psychology was really interesting, and the photos of those wedding desserts made me really want to eat cake! My blog is looking for travel photos, reviews, etc, to share. If you have the time, check it out at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com, or email me at [e-mail]. If you find anything interesting to share during your time in Australia, we welcome all contributions from fellow travelers! Have a good trip! Heather