Dr. Itai Ivtzan is passionate about the combination of Positive Psychology and Mindfulness. It makes his heart sing. He is convinced that if we befriend both of those practices and succeed in introducing them into our lives, we will all become super-heroes and gain super-strengths of awareness, courage, resilience, and compassion. Isn't this an amazing prospect? Dr. Itai Ivtzan is a positive psychologist, a Professor at Naropa University, and the School of Positive Transformation Director. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Ivtzan has run seminars, lectures, workshops, and retreats in the USA, UK, and worldwide, at various educational institutions and private events. He is a regular keynote speaker at conferences. He published five books and more than 50 journal papers and book chapters. His main areas of research and teaching are positive psychology, mindfulness, and spirituality. Dr. Ivtzan is confident that mindfulness meditation has the power to change individuals – in fact, whole societies – for the better. Accordingly, he has invested much time in studying mindfulness academically, writing books about it, teaching it, and training mindfulness teachers. As part of his work, he established the School of Positive Transformation, offering practical Well-being courses for practitioners, teaching them how to transform themselves and their clients and students.
He is the author/co-author of:
- Awareness is Freedom: The Adventure of Psychology and Spirituality
- Mindfulness in Positive Psychology: The Science of Meditation and Wellbeing
- Second Wave Positive Psychology: Embracing the Dark Side of Life
- Applied Positive Psychology: Integrated Positive Practice
- Handbook of Mindfulness-Based Programmes: Mindfulness Interventions from Education to Health and Therapy
What is the first image that comes to our mind when positive psychology (PP) is mentioned? For most of us, it is the smiley emoticon. This symbol of happiness, optimism and joy reflects the way PP is commonly conceived and portrayed, both within the PP discipline and in society at large. As such, whatever is labelled as ‘negative’ is frequently rejected and considered to be outside the sphere of PP. But this could not be farther from the truth. In fact, PP investigates and researches some of the most difficult and painful human experiences. This talk explores a variety of topics that could be regarded as part of the ‘dark side’ of life, and emphasises the role they play in the positive aspect of our functioning and transformation as human beings.
The ‘dark side’ refers to challenging experiences, thoughts, emotions and behaviours, which trigger discomfort in us. Such discomfort is frequently avoided, as it involves an engagement with fear, pain, distress or confusion. However, engaging with the challenge and discomfort has great potential for growth, healing, insight and transformation. In other words, the ‘dark side’ contains the seed for a potential positive outcome, even when the path towards this outcome is testing.
I would like students and other people who are interested in this field to feel they are allowed to include the aspects of life – which we might call ‘negative’ – in their PP experience. Moreover, it is important to stress that these aspects of life are frequently necessary for the experience of growth and flourishing to be complete. To achieve this, I describe in this talk the current state of affairs in the field of PP, with a view to dispelling the myth of its ‘positivity’. People believe that PP involves only the positive, because they confuse experiences with outcomes. Indeed, the outcomes of PP theory and research are always positive in some way; however, the paths, the journey, what we experience on the way to these outcomes may be ‘negative’ and challenging. Second-wave PP recognises and acknowledges this journey, enabling the broadening of PP boundaries to embrace both ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ in our experience of flourishing.
Instytut Psychologii KUL
Al. Racławickie 14, 20-950 Lublin
Polskie Towarzystwo Psychologii Pozytywnej. Wszelkie prawa zastrzeżone.