 Namaste, welcome to the third session which is titled as positive psychology and introduction. In the second section we discussed about the nature of positive psychology and how it can be studied in integration with the yoga and mindfulness related methods, how it is integrated in this course and why it is important to study both of these in a course on self-management and career management. Today's session is primarily focused to give an introduction to the field of positive psychology and also pointing out how it is applied in the different streams like management, R and D or tourism management and what are the recent advances in the field of positive psychology. If you recall in our previous discussion, we looked at how after World War II psychology and psychological research was mostly focused on the illness and disorders. It was the demand at the time as when it was started because the major mandate for psychology was to work with the other health professionals and help people and war veterans to get rehabilitated psychologically. So, attain an ordinary state of consciousness, attain a normal way of life was the objective of the field of psychology. But then there was a recognition that there is a lot in life other than being normal. There are many great qualities which defines which makes us true human beings and that was the call to look at not only how to attain the normal state of life, but it is about researching and knowing more about optimal functioning or flourishing of the human being and that resulted into the major advances in the field of positive psychology. What do I mean by optimal experiences, we would like to look at these things through certain stories. So, imagine the day when you left home to pursue higher education or you left home for major camp or an development program. Both your parents were skeptical in sending you outside far away from home. They were constantly in dilemma thinking if they are making the right decision whether their son or daughter will study well and live up to the standards of the parents expectations. When your parents are amidst doubts and dilemmas exactly in that moment you take charge of situation. You sit beside your parent, you pacify them, give them hope that you will not do anything that hampers your study or degrades the reputation of your family. Whether you will strive to bring pride and honor to the family, you also assure them that irrespective of your busy schedule you will call them once a day to update about your well-being as well as ensure that they are doing well too. Can you relate this story with your life or the life of the people, your sibling, your friends around you and please look at the highlighted word hope. In the difficult time, in the time of indecision, in the time of dilemma it is the hope which has brought light to the hearts of your parents and to yourself. Let us look at another story and different people will have different characters and different situations coming to their mind, coming to their memory when reading about this incident or this provocation. So, think about a teacher or teachers, neighbors or friends or relatives who spend time and effort to make you learn new things, who help you to imbibe some good qualities or even made extra effort for your personal or professional growth. Think about those I requested in the last session that please keep pen and pencil in front of you and please keep writing about it. Think about the characters, think about the people, reflect from the childhood, your school days, your higher secondary school days, your college days, the days in your professional life and think about those people who have spent time and effort to make you a better person or make you a better professional or make you a better student. Write their names, write the place where you met them, recall some of the most memorable incidences of your interaction with them, try to see that as it happened at that time while doing that what is the emotion coming to your mind. This emotion we all know is the feeling of being grateful. So in everyday life there are such instances that allow us to identify and apply positive psychology interventions and that make our life flourish and worth living. Another experiment you can try, you can pause this lecture, look at the person closest to you at this moment, think about a good quality of that person, think about his special his or her special skill, his or her special quality, his or her special positive attitude. Think about it, note it down, read it and if you think so you can edit it, rephrase it, make it appropriate based on your understanding and why not just call this person, go to this person and say that so and so, I am taking this course on Yogan positive psychology and as a part of the assignment I wish to appreciate you of your this particular quality. If you are a teacher you can carry out this exercise in the classroom, you can ask people to appreciate each other, give the appreciation first write down the appreciation about the person sitting besides him or her and then give these slips and exchange these slips and please notice how it feels like, how it changes our energy levels, how these interactions bring warmth in the relationships, even maybe for some for few moments, so we can see that we can probably be all are using positive psychology intervention in day to day life. In this course we will try to understand the science and art behind it and also using these things more consciously and more strongly. So, in order to understand it even better how the shift in the psychology took place we can take two another incidences. At this stage, it is important to distinguish how the field or branch of knowledge which focuses on well-being is bound to be different from or bound to look at different variables which are looked at in a field which is focused on treating mental illness. So, we are trying to understand this process again by two caselets. The first caselet is of Rahul a fictitious character, but not very difficult to find a character like Rahul around all of us. So, Rahul is 40-year-old technology strategist. He is a beta graduate with management degree from a renowned institution. He handles a team of 15 associates year on year basis that team manages to reach the targets, but Rahul hardly takes leave or goes for vacation nor he grants leave to his team members. He also skips lunch rather he prefer to utilize his break in checking emails and replying to the clients. Sometimes his colleagues see him with his forehead pasted on his palms, gratuling his head as if thoughts are weighing him down. His team interaction is also not very pleasant and often limited to delegation of tasks and activities. Naturally, he is known as the grouch manager on the floor. Rahul is unaware of the situation. Rahul's immediate manager is able to see the stress on his face for many years and in one appraisal he finally decides to send him on a forced paid leave for two weeks. Rahul makes up his mind, takes the clinical help in which he is diagnosed with acute stress, anxiety and some signs of depression. The doctor gives a verdict stating at the moment Rahul is unfit to continue with his day to day chores and put him on us psychotropic drugs for naturally Rahul is unaware of the situation, but Rahul's immediate manager is able to see the stress on his face and for many years this is obvious to him. In one of the appraisal manager finally decides to send him on the forced leave for two weeks. Rahul makes up his mind and takes also clinical help in which he is diagnosed with acute stress and anxiety. So, what do we infer from the Rahul's story? We can infer that Rahul is performing in an autopilot mode obviously he is stressed out. Rahul's colleague most likely they are not happy working with him. Rahul's mental and physical health both are at stake and we can also infer that mental and physical health are deeply connected. Unfortunately, we can also infer that Rahul is unaware of the severity of the situation. If this continues for long time he can face emergency alert at any time because the stress and anxiety can become more severe and long term stress and anxiety may result into more serious ailments like hypertension, heart diseases, indigestion and many others. So, we can also infer that Rahul needs immediate attention and in this immediate attention we most likely the counselor or the health professional or a coach who helps Rahul to see the situation and get out of it most likely will start the conversation about what is not pleasant, what is not welcoming, what is pathological in his dispositions and how it is being perceived by others. This story is of one another fictitious character Savita. Savita is 50 year old senior marketing manager. She had a team of 10 marketing associates who have global clientele. Savita has no fixed working hours and sometime we see her working even on public holidays. Every month Savita and her team is given fresh targets to achieve. We also know that she has a family comprising of husband to children. So far the leadership meeting we had we always noticed Savita's cheerful face. In fact, on the floor she is known as women who is always smiling. Among her team members she is known as an emphatic leader who always lands quality time and patient year. On probing further we came to know that last month the team could not adhere to their targets, but still in meeting Savita looked so confident and resilient of the failure. We remember how she owned a failure and emphasized upon the areas of improvement rather than brooding upon the failure or playing the blame game. We found little curious about her ever cheerful attitude and hence well deeper into her lifestyle. We found that every morning Savita sets aside a time for herself which she calls me time. It lasts for an hour in which she purely works upon her psychological and physical well-being. She engages in meditation, yoga, journaling, reflection. She also prepares food which mostly constitute of raw green vegetables and fruits. She has been doing this for many years now. We are really amazed to have Savita in our organization whose presence inspires and motivates all of us. So, looking at this case let you can understand this is the account given by one of the senior colleagues of Savita. What you can infer about Savita and what you can infer from this story about well-being? We can infer that Savita is mindful and whatever she does, she radiates positive energy. Savita's colleague feel happy being around her and being working with her and Savita takes care of her overall well-being. Positive psychology focuses on such characteristics and helps people to inculcate these and enhance these characteristics. For many years we had enough knowledge, we have substantial knowledge about stress, anxiety, depression, but we did not have much knowledge about positive attitude, about courage, about well-being, about friendliness, about love, about following a discipline. We did not have much idea and positive psychology looks at these variables.