Ep 22: On finding happiness through yoga and positive psychology

         
Mercedes Sieff - happiness
Yoga Off The Mat - The Movement For Modern Life Podcast
Yoga Off The Mat - The Movement For Modern Life Podcast
Kat Farrants

Kat Farrants, founder and CEO of Movement For Modern Life, talks with experts in different fields and looks at them from the point of view of a yogic lifestyle. With her discoveries, we learn how to take our Yoga practice off the mat and live a happy, healthy, sustainable life.

Do you want to explore Mercedes’ Positive Psychology for happiness series? Check out all our classes for FREE for 14 days here: https://movementformodernlife.com/chooseplan

“We know what makes us happy, what is tricky is the unhappy moments”

It often seems that as a society we are constantly on the search for the holy grail of happiness. But what if everything you need to be happy was already inside of you? 

In this fascinating episode, we talk to Mercedes Sieff about happiness and how we can discover it through yoga and positive psychology. Mercedes is a leading light in the world of yoga and she teaches creative and feisty sequences. It is incredibly eye opening to see just how well the worlds of yoga and psychology combine. Her innovative Positive Psychology series on Movement For Modern Life has been hugely popular! 

This chat with Mercedes is all about lightness, playfulness and “seeing the moment for what it is and having a bit of fun with it”.  We explore character strengths and the history of yoga to lead us to the answer to finding happiness, which may not be quite what you expect. 

In this episode you will find out about…

Yoga and Positive Psychology (3:55)
  • The science behind positive psychology.
  • The benefits of positive psychology for students and teachers alike – you can be your greatest teacher!
  • Why you should focus on what’s going well, start from where you are and build upon that.
Character strengths (10:00)
  • What are the character strengths? Can we have them all? 
  • Can these strengths change over time or are we stuck with them? 
  • Find out your character strengths through VIA (https://www.viastrengths.org/survey/account/register)
  • How you can make the most of your character strengths and bring them into your daily life?
The Boat analogy (17:00)
  • Plug the hole in your boat but focus on the sails! 
  • The importance of the growth mindset and the word ‘yet’.
Yoga and the mind (20:49) 
  • The importance of the mind and the breath.
  • “Some where along the way, yoga got hijacked by these poses”  – the difference between yoga and yoga asana
  • How we can change our habits through yoga and become the observer?
Steps to happiness (31:57)
  • Is it less about being happy and more about learning how to manage unhappiness?
  • How can you see the happiness that is already there and what makes you think you should be happier?  
  • The importance of breath in uncomfortable moments.

Find Mercedes’ Positive Psychology series here: https://movementformodernlife.com/yoga-class-1287-positive-psychology-yoga-1-zest

Do you want to explore Mercedes’ Positive Psychology series? Check out all our classes for FREE for 14 days here: https://movementformodernlife.com/chooseplan

 

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