Marriage and my Positive Psychology Class

This semester I'm taking a course called "Intro to Positive Psychology". What is Positive Psychology you might ask? It's the study of how to increase lasting happiness in your life and the health/social benefits that go along with it. It also teaches you what your signature strengths are so that you can more easily see them in others (in fact, one of our assignments is to take a personality questionnaire to establish our unique strengths).

So why am I bringing this up on a wedding blog?

Well a lot of the things you can actually do to make yourself happier are "intentional choices". Such as the people you choose to surround yourself with, the career you pursue, how you relax (and how often), do you take the time to appreciate all the wonderful things in your life (and how wonderful you are), and the view you choose to take on the bad things as well.

I think having a happy marriage can often be the same way. You never speak to a long time married couple without them saying that a marriage takes work, and I think a lot of that work is making certain choices. You can choose to be positive and optimistic during the bad times, you can choose to let go of a grudge after a fight, you can commit to a date-night once a week, you can be open with your spouse about your fears.

So what I'm saying is that I think there is a lot of relevant strategies I'm looking forward to learning over the next month or so, while I'm in the class. If I learn anything ground-breaking I'll be sure to pass it along! :-D