The secret to healing and personal transformation is to focus on what is right about yourself and life. The newly emerging field of Positive Psychology has developed the science to support ancient wisdom about focusing on the best in ourselves. As the Cayce material puts it, we are encouraged “to turn towards the light,” and “to maximize strengths and minimize the faults.”

In this one-day workshop, psychologist and author Mark Thurston will help you find methods and approaches from this new science of positivity to help you cope with the demands and stresses of daily living. This workshop course will combine short lectures along with personal and small group experiential exercises that focus on the art of living with positivity. You will learn how this perspective of positivity plays out in terms of three practical aspects of spiritual growth and development.

Positivity in dreaming. Sometimes we think of dreams in terms of scary or upsetting experiences that come in our sleep. But the science of positivity invites you to see dreams as a primary way to discover our ideals, strengths, and what is best about us. If dreams truly are the “window to the soul” then what kinds of dream interpretation strategies can help us discover what is right about ourselves, as opposed to what is wrong? This workshop will give you practice with some specific tools for that kind of self-insight from your own dreams.

Positivity in self-awareness. Positivity invites us to the journey of become a whole person. That means nurturing an awareness that is patient and accepting of everything about oneself. Positivity in dream study is one step in that direction, but we need to go farther. We are invited to an attitude towards ourselves that embraces both happiness and unhappiness, that lovingly accepts the good and the bad. One of the most striking findings from the science of positivity is that people who exhibit optimal mental health have a ratio of 3 positive emotions to 1 negative emotion. This ratio emphasizes the importance of focusing what is good about life but without ignoring or suppressing feelings that arise from troublesome situations.

Positivity for mindful living. Various methods for practicing mindfulness can strengthen your capacity to be attentive and focused upon the positive aspects of your life. In this workshop you will learn about the latest research findings about meditation and mindfulness, and what they suggest about how you can live a more meaningful, stress-reduced, and positive life – what is now being called a “flourishing life.” Mindful living helps us develop “synthesized happiness,” which comes from creatively making a connection with inner happiness in spite of any conditions in the outer world.