Positive Psychology for Overcoming Depression by Miriam Akhtar

This book, dubbed as providing, 'self-help strategies for happiness, inner strength and wellbeing', takes you on a journey through the relatively new discipline of positive psychology. It details techniques for developing a positive mindset, enabling you to reach for a happier and more fulfilling life. It's aimed at depressed people, but offers interesting insights to anyone seeking to enhance their happiness.

Positive psychology is different from counselling or psychotherapy, in-so-much that it's designed to encourage positive emotions, rather than to work through the difficulties and traumas left by a troubled past. It aims to encourage an optimistic outlook, build resilience, encourage positive relationships and develop achievable goals.

The book begins by looking at depression, then quickly moves onto happiness, of which it says 40% is under your control (only 10% of your happiness ratio is down to circumstances, says the author, and 50% is dictated by your genes). The book helps you work on that 40% by undertaking exercises and techniques deigned to increase your happiness.

Chapter three says, "When you experience more positive emotions than negative ones, at a ratio of three positive emotions to every one negative, you can enter an upward spiral of growth". Later in the book, the author says five positive emotions are required for every negative one, just to maintain a balance! That's a lot of positivity. The author suggests compiling a list of things you enjoy and trying to do one of them every day.

There's a chapter on savouring positive experiences. It's a lot like mindfulness, encouraging you to focus on the sound, smell, feel, and tastes of the moment. Then the book covers gratitude - the author suggests thinking of ten things you're grateful for every day.

There's a chapter on meditation and mindfulness, its benefits, along with exercises and practises to try at home. A further chapter looks at learning optimism, reframing, over-thinking, and how small steps can help you to solve problems.

The chapter on resillience looks at ways to enhance your resillience and challenge negative beliefs, drawing on techniques used in cognitive behavioural therapy. The author suggests looking for positives among the negative things that happen to you. Have your bad experiences given you greater empathy and compassion, enabling you to reach out and help others for example? The chapter suggests resilience techniques such as deep breathing, exercise, writing a journal, and yoga.

It's chapter nine, Positive Connections: Other People Matter, that says, "it takes five positive experiences to make up for every negative event". This chapter encourages the formation and maintenance of 'high quality relationships' to support this positivity ratio, and suggests doing random acts of kindness to boost your mood.

The 'Vitality' chapter talks about the benefits of physical activity on mood, and the need for rest. It looks at nutrition, laughter, and spiritual wellbeing.

The main messages in this book are that it can be beneficial to follow the techniques designed to help you develop an optimistic outlook, build confidence, do things to create positive emotions, develop goals, and build resillience. The last two chapters go through some of these things, looking at harnessing your strengths for success and fulfilment, finding meaning in your life, and setting goals for change. There's plenty to think about and experiment with in this book. It's a worthwhile read for anyone who seeks a happier state of mind.