"You've got to spread joy up to the maximum.  Bring gloom down to the minimum.  Otherwise pandemonium ... Liable to walk upon the scene".  Bing Crosby sings

"You've got to accentuate the positive.  Eliminate the negative.  Latch onto the affirmative.  Don't mess with Mr In-Between".  Bing Crosby sings!

"Ten thousand flowers in the spring; the moon in autumn; a cool breeze in summer; snow in winter.  If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life."                                Wu-wen

"Thus weave for us a garment of brightness; that we may walk fittingly where birds sing; that we may walk fittingly where grass is green; O' our Mother the Earth, O' our Father the Sky."       Tewa Indian 'Song of the Sky Loom'

This "Further background ... " post adds to the "Initial background for the colouring in exercise: assessment, maps, emotional intelligence & emotion discrimination" in supporting the "The 'emotion colouring in exercise': how to do it".  

gratitude writing:  The second 3-minute section of ...

expressive writing:  Returning to the ...

emotion processing:   Denise ...

taking it forward:  So ...

More to follow ...

This "Initial background" post provides important information to support use of the brief 6-minute "Emotion colouring In exercise".  There is additional useful information in the companion post "Further background for the colouring in exercise: gratitude, expressive writing, emotion processing & taking it forward". 

Emotional intelligence:

Emotion differentiation:

More to follow ... 

The "Emotion colouring In exercise" is a deceptively simple 6-minute writing exercise where we practise identifying and describing our feelings.  For important additional information about this process, see the "Initial background for the colouring in exercise: assessment, maps, emotional intelligence & emotion differentiation" and the "Further background for the colouring in exercise: gratitude, expressive writing, emotion processing & taking it forward&q

“ The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me.  The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them. ” - George Bernard Shaw

There are so many interesting issues that can be covered in this chapter, for example "Four aspects of inner focus" model.  Mindfulness.  Acceptance.  Presence.  Flow.  Positive psychology findings.  Importance of gratitude/savouring.

In her wonderful poem "The summer day", Mary Oliver wrote:

I wrote yesterday about the two pre-European Conference on Positive Psychology (ECPP) workshops I went to on "Positive supervision" and on "Positive relationships".  Then in mid-afternoon on Tuesday, the conference proper began.  It was heralded by Taiko drummers and a cluster of brief welcoming speeches.  Apparently there are 920 people at the conference from about 50 different countries.  The country spread is similar, but the numbers are up 50% on the approximately 600 attendees at the 5th ECPP I went to in Copenhagen four years ago.

Last September I went back to Cambridge for a reunion ... the first time I'd ever been back to school or university for such a thing.  It was an experiment in "emotional archaeology" and I wrote a series of blog posts about it.  At one stage I experimented with a dialogue between the 22 year old and the current 62 year old versions of me.  In the post "Going back for a university reunion: self-esteem, hallucinogens, wonder & the transpersonal", I wrote "I changed subject too from philosophy to medicine (in 1970).