Resilience 101: Mental Fitness, Positive Psychology and the Power of Tiny Habits with Dr Tamra Wright

COURSE UPDATE: The first two weeks of this programme are now being offered for FREE, and will focus on mental resilience. We will consider research-backed ways of caring for our well-being during a crisis, and focus on turning this knowledge into actionable routines and habits. I will coach you, via email, in creating new habits to help you through this difficult period, using the Tiny Habits approach of Dr BJ Fogg.  I will also introduce you to key ideas from Shirzad Chamine's bestseller Positive Intelligence that will help you avoid downward spirals of negative thoughts and behaviours. 

You may either book just for the first two weeks or book the whole course. After the first two weeks, we will revert to my original plan for this course (title 'Happiness 101'), which was to focus on developing our 'mental fitness' to attain greater happiness and success, as well as continuous improvements in our well-being. (If you choose to enroll for the whole course, please see the note on fees below.) 

Original Course Description for 'Happiness 101' 

Most people want to be happier, but if you're anything like me, you're probably fed up with self-appointed gurus peddling fuzzy ideas of happiness and, worse, promoting unproven and often expensive strategies for attaining it. I like to think of myself as a fairly even-tempered person, but if you ever want to hear me rant, just ask me about "The Secret" and its pseudo-scientific nonsense about "manifesting" what you want using only the power of your mind. 

Happiness 101 will introduce you to the most important findings in Positive Psychology, which is a genuine academic discipline with a strong evidence base.  You will learn to take the often nebulous idea of happiness and flesh out its real meaning for you and your life. You'll discover:

• the five components of human flourishing and how you can get better at each of them
  
  
• how to identify and deploy your signature strengths
  
  
• how to develop an optimistic, life-enhancing, growth mindset

After exploring the big picture of human flourishing that the positive psychologists have outlined for us, we will switch our focus to practical strategies for implementing their ideas and translating your aspirations into small behaviours that you can do on a regular basis. We will use Stanford Professor Dr BJ Fogg's approach to behaviour design, specifically his Tiny Habits Recipes. You will learn an easy and enjoyable approach to creating positive new habits in just a few minutes per day. Whether you want to improve your health and fitness, create a meditation or prayer habit, or work towards any other goal, Tiny Habits can help you. I'll be on hand to coach you, via email, in creating, tweaking and implementing your new habit recipes. There will also be live Q&A sessions over Zoom twice per month, so that we can discuss any questions you have about how to best use Fogg's approach to behaviour change. 

With the foundations of Positive Psychology and Tiny Habits firmly in place, we will turn our attention to dealing with the self-sabotaging behaviours (including procrastination, people-pleasing, and perfectionism, amongst others)  and limiting beliefs that keep so many of us stuck in our old ways and prevent us from leading genuinely fulfilling lives. I will lead you through the 6-week  "mental fitness" training programme created by Shirzad Chamine, author of the New York Times best-selling book "Positive Intelligence". Tens of thousands of people have completed this app-based programme, which has been carefully researched and designed to enable transformative change in the realms of performance, wellness and relationships, three cornerstones of a flourishing life. By investing an hour over the weekend to watch recorded material and 15 minutes a day during the week to complete short exercises, you will be able to make dramatic changes in your outlook, performance, and peace of mind. 

The mental fitness programme will help you strengthen your 'self-command muscle' so that you can choose what your mind focuses on, turn down the volume of the negative voices in your head that may sabotage your attempts at change, and bounce back more quickly when you face setbacks. You will learn a range of tools and techniques to help you manage negative emotions, and access your 'sage' powers of empathy, creativity, and clear-headed action whenever you choose.

Previous students on my Tiny Habits and Positive Psychology programmes gave this feedback:

• "Tamra is very supportive and always tries to offer advice to help me succeed in my tiny habits."
  
  
• "Tamra was brilliant giving clear guidance and also giving plenty of time and wise insight into the hows and whys."
  
  
• "A very positive experience that has required minimal effort but has effected significant change and in turn a very positive mindset!"
  
  
• "Enjoyed the experience and Tamra was great!!"
  
  
• "It was an amazing experience!"
  

About Tamra: a personal story 

Many moons ago, when I was working on my PhD in Philosophy, I developed a severe case of business card envy. Most of my friends (and, worse, all of my cousins) seemed to have graduated to jobs out in the 'real world', and they had the fancy business cards to prove it.

After one visit home, I came back to London and told my friend Ian (who had also languished in graduate school for too many years): I want business cards! They will say "Tamra Wright, Philosopher", followed by "Call this number in case of existential crisis"!

I never did get those cards printed, but these days I enjoy taking the best insights of the academic world out of the ivory tower and into my students' homes. And I've branched out from philosophy to include other disciplines, especially Positive Psychology and Behaviour Design.

Finally! My philosophical crisis business card, created by Adina Gamse.


Please note that this programme is not sponsored by Positive Intelligence, LLC, nor is 2020 Torah working in partnership with Positive Intelligence, LLC to offer it.

A note on fees: A single component of this course, the 7-week PQ 'Mental Fitness' programme, costs $995 on the Positive Intelligence website, and this doesn't include the services of a coach. If finances might be a barrier to your participation, please get in touch with me in the strictest confidence. Please also note that the most generous early bird discounts are available through the 2020 Torah mailing list. To join the mailing list, or for more information about this programme, email me at this address: Tamra.2020Torah@outlook.com

Important note: This programme is not intended to replace therapy or other treatments. If you have mental health concerns, please consult a mental health professional to help you decide whether this programme is appropriate for you at this time.

Zoom Meeting Dates (8 Mondays at 7 pm UK time):

Monday 23rd October
Monday 30th October 
Monday 6th November
Monday 13th November
Monday 20th November
Monday 27th November
Monday 4th December
Monday 18th December (no session during Chanukah) 

The dates for the optional Q&A sessions will be arranged after consultation with the group. 

More about Tamra: 

Dr Tamra Wright wears many hats, both literally and figuratively. A specialist in 20th-century Jewish philosophy, her most recent publication is an article on Emmanuel Levinas and "The Merchant of Venice" in the journal Levinas Studies. Tamra is also a certified Tiny Habits coach and a Mental Fitness coach. You can find out more about Tamra's interest in Tiny Habits, and the project of creating a 'new mussar' (inspired by Rabbi Sacks zt'l)  by looking at her blog on positivelytiny.com or reading these articles:

Jewish Chronicle: https://www.thejc.com/judaism/all/little-steps-can-help-make-a-big-difference-to-our-wellbeing-OGOfOn2BKDfUNxZkiAu03

Tradition Online: https://traditiononline.org/the-best-tiny-habits/

Resiliency Image by WOKANDAPIX from Pixabay

Happy people photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash