Wellness Matters Webinar - Pathways to Positivity: Exploring Well-Being in Positive Psychology

Pathways to Positivity: Exploring Well-Being in Positive Psychology, is an enlightening webinar designed to delve into the uplifting world of positive psychology and its practical applications for enhancing well-being. Whether you're a professional, a student, or simply someone looking to enrich your personal life, this webinar will provide you with valuable insights and tools to foster positivity and well-being in various aspects of life.

In this talk, you will learn:

• Fundamental Concepts of Positive Psychology: Understand the core theories and principles that underpin positive psychology, including the PERMA model and concepts of flow and resilience.

• Practical Techniques for Enhancing Well-Being: Learn actionable strategies to improve your daily emotional and psychological well-being through mindfulness, gratitude exercises, and strength-finding activities.

• Application in Real Life: Discover how to apply these concepts in real-world settings through examples that illustrate the effectiveness of positive psychology interventions.

  Engage with interactive elements throughout the webinar that help solidify your learning and personal connection to the material.

Facilitated by: Alissa Caskey

FAQs

• What is positive psychology, and how can it improve my mental health and well-being?

  Positive psychology is a branch of psychology that focuses on what helps people flourish—not just on diagnosing or treating problems. Instead of asking “What’s wrong with me?”, it explores strengths like resilience, gratitude, connection, and meaning. In this webinar, Alyssa explains how positive psychology offers evidence-based tools to move from “I’m doing fine” to truly flourishing, helping reduce stress, burnout, and feelings of isolation while increasing life satisfaction and emotional well-being.

• What is the PERMA model in positive psychology, and how does it help people flourish?

  The PERMA model is a framework for understanding well-being that stands for Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. Positive emotions (like gratitude and hope) build joy and resilience, engagement helps you find “flow” in meaningful activities, relationships support mental and physical health, meaning provides direction and purpose, and accomplishment celebrates both big and small wins. The webinar shows how intentionally nurturing each pillar can create a richer, more balanced, and more fulfilling life over time.

• How can awe and “awe walks” support stress reduction and emotional resilience?

  Awe is a powerful emotion that helps us feel connected to something larger than ourselves, shrinking our self-focus and expanding our perspective. In the talk, Alyssa introduces “awe walks”—short, intentional walks where you slow down, notice beauty and wonder in your surroundings (like the sky, trees, or sounds), and reflect on how it makes you feel. Research discussed in the webinar suggests that awe can reduce stress, increase a sense of connection and meaning, and even support physical health, making awe walks a simple, accessible tool for emotional resilience.

• What practical positive psychology tools can I use daily to build resilience and cope with stress or burnout?

  The webinar shares several simple, research-informed tools you can start using right away: savoring future successes by visualizing things going well, genuine gratitude practices focused on a few meaningful aspects of your life, “micro-joy” journaling to record small moments of happiness, and revisiting positive photos to re-evoke uplifting emotions. Alyssa also highlights reframing setbacks as opportunities for growth, building supportive relationships, and incorporating brief awe practices into your day. Used consistently, these tools can help you bounce forward from challenges, manage anxiety, and gradually move toward a more flourishing, purposeful life.

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to our Wellness Matters talk this evening. I’m so excited about our topic tonight: Pathways to Positivity: Exploring Well-Being in Positive Psychology. I’m going to introduce our facility in just a moment. My name is Nicole Imgrund, and I’m the owner of Rivers Edge Counselling Centre. You may or may not know that the webinar tonight is part of a series of webinars, and we have, I think, over 150 of those on our website now. You’ll be able to see this webinar and lots of other ones, with such a breadth of topics, anytime as a resource as well.

Speaking about our Wellness Matters series, I just recently put up the titles and descriptions for the winter and spring ones. I want to share a few with you. Oh my goodness, they just look so interesting. I can’t wait to hear them. In January, we have one about burnout and compassion fatigue. In February, Shadine is going to talk to us about navigating grief and mental health during infertility. Robin, in March, is going to talk about embracing second puberty: perimenopausal mental health considerations. Aaron, in April, is talking about Finding My Way: An Artist Journey, exploring mental health through creativity, curiosity, and embracing the unknown. It just goes on and on. We’ve got self-compassion, expanding the window of tolerance, unlocking ADHD—lots of great topics to start us off really well in 2025, which is just around the corner.

We also just recently posted all of our upcoming programs and workshops. There are many of them, including one that Alyssa is offering called Unlocking Genuine Connections: Building Healthy Relationships for Personal Growth. There are groups about grief. We have one on self-esteem, embodied awareness of personal boundaries—lots of good stuff, and openings still—so I hope you’ll check them out.

Our talk today is about an hour, but we should have a few minutes at the end, or we’ll go over a couple of minutes if you have any questions. I’ll take a look at the comments that you have as well. It is a webinar, so you don’t have access to camera or audio, but you can certainly use the chat if you want to make comments as you go, or the Q&A, and we will definitely take a look at them at the end.

Without further ado, I’m going to introduce Alyssa Casey, who is our presenter. Alyssa is a Registered Provisional Psychologist, and we are very fortunate to have her on our team at Rivers Edge Counselling. She sees adults, couples, teens, and children for counselling in her clinical practice. Alyssa focuses on helping clients build resilience, nurture meaningful connections, and find purpose. She integrates positive psychology into her practice to foster resilience, connection, and purpose in clients.

She has a really strong background, and she’ll share more about this in her talk, in terms of her background and how it relates to positive psychology. She did two years of research at UBC’s Nature, Meaning, and Life Lab under Dr. Holli-Anne Passmore, and she also developed a positive psychology program called Empowering Wellness, designed to make well-being tools accessible to communities. Alyssa firmly believes in the transformative power of therapy to enrich lives at any stage, embracing the principle that, while the past cannot be changed, the future is full of possibilities. Alyssa empowers her clients to take proactive steps toward a fulfilling life. To Alyssa, therapy is an empowering journey toward flourishing and deep healing.

With that, I’m going to turn it over to you, Alyssa.

Alyssa: Okay. Well, welcome everyone. It’s great to be here, and I’m really excited. Positive psychology is really important to me, and so tonight we are going to explore how positive psychology can impact you, and discover some evidence-based insights and tools to enhance resilience, connection, and purpose in your life. We’re going to start off with a land acknowledgement. I want to acknowledge that the land that we are currently gathering on, and this session tonight, is being conducted on Treaty 6 territory. We acknowledge the many First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples who have lived on and cared for these lands for generations. We want to honor the diverse histories, languages, and cultures of the Indigenous peoples who continue to enrich our communities, and whose stewardship of this land is invaluable.

I’m going to go through a little bit of the scope and boundaries of tonight—some things that are important to clarify, so we’re all aligned. Tonight’s session is informative and educational in nature. It’s not therapeutic, and the tools shared here are meant for general application. It’s also not suitable for professional psychological advice. It’s also not a confidential or therapeutic space, so I just want everyone to be aware that, in the event that you do share something, it isn’t confidential.

With that also in mind, let’s be mindful of the following. Let’s maintain appropriate and professional boundaries by focusing on your own personal reflections and experiences. Also, respect the privacy of all other participants by avoiding identifiable or sensitive personal details. If you do choose to share, be mindful that it is public.

In addition to that, I want to invite everyone to take care of your emotions as needed—step away, or reflect privately, if any content feels overwhelming. And of course, you’re more than welcome to reach out to the clinic if you do need further assistance.

Nicole so graciously introduced me, and thank you so much for that. Hello, my name is Alyssa. I’m excited to have tonight’s session and share with you a big passion of mine, which is positive psychology and flourishing. I began this journey quite a few years ago, and I bring a blend of academic research and practical experience. During my time at UBC, I worked under Holli-Anne Passmore, who is the founder of the Nature, Meaning, and Life Lab. The main practical goal was developing an understanding of how nature and meaning in life contribute to our overall well-being.

I also created, as Nicole mentioned, the Empowering Wellness program, which is a free program that delivers positive psychology tools, information, and strategies to communities. The goal with that was to bridge what I saw as a lack of accessible tools between research and practical application. My biggest hope for tonight’s session is leaving you inspired to take one small step toward a more flourishing, positive, meaningful life.

Without further ado, welcome. Here’s what we’ll be exploring tonight: why positive psychology matters in today’s world; what the PERMA model is; practical examples and unique tools such as awe and micro-moments of connection; and tools for flourishing. We’ll go through a few examples of how we can use some of these strategies to transform your daily well-being, and the goal is for you to have actionable steps for applying the principles we talk about tonight into your everyday life.

I just want to take a quick moment, for those of you attending live, to set you up for success this evening. If you aren’t comfortable, get yourself comfortable in a distraction-free space. Have pen and paper ready for reflections—there is an exercise that would be helpful to jot down if you’d like to use it at a later date. Engage in the activities and experiences as much as you can. The goal is for you to be as present in today’s session as possible. This is your time to focus on personal growth and flourishing.

So, why positive psychology? For decades, psychology has really focused on diagnosis and treating problems, and while I think that’s really important, it’s left a large gap. What often gets forgotten is: what about those who want more, and want to move from “I’m doing fine” into flourishing? Positive psychology answers that question. It’s part of the fourth wave of psychology, which has influenced the current theme of psychology by moving beyond the disease model.

When we move away from “here’s what’s wrong with us” and toward a more strength-focused approach—resilience, purpose, and meaning—we can move out of burnout, stress, and the things that keep us stagnant. One of the reasons I love positive psychology is that it responds to the modern-day challenges of stress and isolation, and specifically burnout. If we spend a lot of time focusing on what’s not working, or things we perceive as unchangeable, we can come at the world from a place of lack. That can be a stressful and difficult place, especially if we feel like it’s the only option.

The shift is timely and relevant in today’s society. The fourth wave of psychology highlights a big need for day-to-day actions. Positive psychology builds on strengths like resilience, gratitude, and connection. That doesn’t mean we ignore the hard things in life. It means we focus on the strengths we already have and use them to build resilience.

Positive psychology is also supported by scientific evidence for improving mental and emotional well-being. It can increase meaning in life and overall well-being, and even positively influence physical health. At the core of it, positive psychology is far more than “let’s just focus on what’s good today.” It’s about what we bring to the table and how to cultivate it in a way that aligns with what we need and value.

I’m going to introduce the PERMA model, which is a framework for understanding flourishing. PERMA stands for Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. Positive emotions—such as gratitude and hope—can enhance joy and resilience. Engagement is about being fully absorbed in activities that bring a sense of flow. Relationships are a cornerstone of well-being. As Brené Brown says, we are hardwired for connection. Meaning gives life direction. Accomplishment celebrates progress, whether big or small. Each pillar offers an opportunity to create a richer, more fulfilling life.

I also want to highlight that positive psychology is not toxic positivity or forcing happiness. That’s not what we’re talking about when we say “positive emotions.” It’s about cultivating gratitude or optimism during tough times. Instead of seeing happiness as something we have to go out and find, we can see it as something we cultivate within ourselves.

Engagement is another big pillar. A lot of us spend so much time disengaged, and from a positive psychology perspective, disengagement can contribute to symptoms of depression, isolation, or loneliness. I want to invite you to think about the last time you were so immersed in an activity that you lost track of time. That’s flow: being deeply enriched through meaningful activity.

Relationships: strong connections aren’t just nice—they’re essential for our mental and physical health. They also contribute to meaning. Meaning, as another pillar, highlights that purpose gives us a reason to keep going, even when things get hard. I want to acknowledge that life struggles exist, but these tools are meant to help us face them. The final pillar is accomplishment. It’s not only about big wins like promotions or medals. It’s about celebrating small victories. When we recognize small accomplishments, we gain joy from them.

Joy is something we can return to even on hard days—not because life is easy, but because meaning and connection remain. We can look back and say, “Some things were tough,” and also recognize what brings meaning: relationships we care about, meaningful activities, moments of engagement. That’s the heart of PERMA—spending more time in positive emotions, not to discredit the negative, but to help us cope and balance it.

With that, I want to take a minute to look at one of my favorite emotions: awe. Awe and positivity resonance are important to our overall flourishing, and they’re also accessible.

Awe is a transformative emotion that shifts our perspective and connects us to something much larger than ourselves. It evokes the concept of a “small self.” Whether we experience awe through nature, art, or a powerful moment of connection, it can expand our sense of purpose. Positivity resonance refers to shared micro-moments of connection—like sharing a smile or a laugh—which deepen relationships. These moments are small, but they can have a lasting impact on well-being and even health.

Awe is a surprising driver of flourishing because it expands perspective and reduces self-focus. Research suggests that when we experience awe—especially in shared moments or in nature—we can become less self-focused and more socially connected. The “small self” reminds us there’s something bigger than us, and that we’re not alone. There is also research linking awe to physical health benefits, including reduced inflammation and improved cardiovascular health.

Now we’re going to go into an interactive activity. We won’t physically go on a walk right now, but I hope you’ll write it down and try it in the next few days: an “awe walk.” The goal is to connect deeply with your surroundings. Take a moment to observe beauty and wonder in the world around you. Notice what stands out. Maybe it’s the sound of the wind, the texture of a tree, the colors of the sky. Notice how these moments make you feel and consider jotting them down afterward—because it gives you something to reflect back on.

This doesn’t have to be big. It can be small. If you’re heading outside, walking into work, or leaving the house, you can build nature into your day-to-day life. You don’t have to go search for nature. You’re connecting with awe and also with a major theme in positive psychology: nature and belonging.

There’s also another way to do this if you can’t—or don’t want to—go outside. You can imagine it, or look at photos. If you take five minutes to close your eyes and picture a walk you took recently: what caught your attention? Was it a sound? The crunch of snow underfoot? The wind? A sight that sparked resilience—like a tree that’s half dead and half alive, or new growth in an unexpected place? Or the warmth of the sun on a really cold day?

Reflect on what that moment made you feel: what did you notice, what surprised you? If we’re looking for awe, we’re looking for surprise—the “wow” moment. It’s a simple exercise that brings mindfulness and gratitude into daily life, and it helps combat stress.

For those who are stuck in an office or don’t have a window, you can still evoke awe by looking at photos: nature, art, something vast like the ocean, skies, or stars. Even without being physically there, we can evoke that same sense of wonder, which can help reduce stress and support well-being.

Now, let’s talk about the science of resilience. Resilience is a big word and it gets used a lot. Resilience is not that nothing affects us. It’s not being the person who just shrugs everything off. Resilience is thriving in the face of adversity, not the absence of adversity. Adversity is part of the human experience. Resilience is the concept that despite challenges, we can still thrive.

Concepts like antifragility show how stress can make us stronger, and post-traumatic growth highlights meaning and strength that can arise from adversity. Resilience isn’t just bouncing back—it’s bouncing forward. When life throws a curveball, we often focus on the curveball itself. Positive psychology invites us to respond differently: to bounce forward.

Think of resilience like a trampoline: using challenges as a springboard for growth. Just because something is difficult doesn’t mean we can’t flourish. Post-traumatic growth can involve discovering strength after hardship—reflecting on what we got through, recognizing that getting through something hard is an accomplishment, and using that memory as evidence when we face difficulty again.

That reframes our mindset and moves us toward optimism. Antifragility is growth through stress and challenges—using the difficult aspects of stress as a springboard. A simple example is exercise: muscles tear and rebuild stronger. They don’t return exactly to how they were; they grow. Similarly, stress can expand our capacity. We can rebuild and develop greater tolerance.

This is where choices and tools come in: choosing how we respond, knowing what we know about stress, adversity, and flourishing. Victor Frankl’s work also speaks to meaning in suffering—that meaning is often created not in the absence of difficulty, but through who we become while facing it.

A practical step here is reframing setbacks as opportunities. When we approach a curveball with curiosity, we can learn something, lean on support networks, build stronger relationships, and see the situation with less self-blame. Another practical piece is building supportive networks. If we go back to the PERMA model, relationships matter. When we feel disconnected, we can either reach out to existing support or recognize that building connections is an area to explore. That’s coming from abundance: we can build more.

Now, practical tools for flourishing. I’ve listed six of these. These aren’t the only tools, but they’re helpful and not big commitments—especially during stressful seasons.

First: savoring future successes. The power of our mind is impressive. If we close our eyes and imagine a future success—how something could go right—we can gain a lot from that. We can break down: what created the success? What was I feeling? What did the environment look like? What does it say about me and what I’m doing? This can help reduce anxiety about the future and brings us back to the present.

Another visualization tool is gratitude. I want to clarify what gratitude is not. Gratitude isn’t forcing yourself to be thankful for everything, like “I have a flat tire, I’m grateful.” That’s not effective, and research suggests it can make gratitude feel irritating and less helpful.

Gratitude is genuine thankfulness for a handful of things in life. The PERMA model gives us a place to explore that. Maybe it’s a relationship, support from someone, a meaningful experience, or an achievement. Visualizing gratitude for goals you’ve achieved—or will achieve—can help us stay motivated and remind us that we can do hard things. Gratitude can also help combat stress by anchoring us in what’s meaningful.

I’m also a huge fan of joy journaling—especially micro-joy journaling. Instead of trying to force gratitude journaling every day until it loses meaning, we can notice and record small moments of happiness or joy. Over time, that becomes a collection you can return to when things get tough.

Another tool is capturing unexpected moments of happiness in real time—photos are great for this. When we look back on photos of positive moments, we can re-evoke those emotions. That’s part of why people find relief watching something funny or looking at uplifting photos—our brain returns to those feelings and can reduce the intensity of stress in the moment.

We’ve also talked about awe walks: take a short walk and seek something that inspires wonder and connects you with the present. And lastly, seeking wonder in your everyday environment. If we approach life with a curious, wonder-seeking mindset, we prime our brain to notice more positive experiences, and that supports stress reduction and cognitive reframing over time.

As we wrap up, here are key takeaways: flourishing is not a one-time achievement. It’s a journey of small and consistent steps. If we treat flourishing like something we “achieve” and then we’re done, we fall back into older models. Positive psychology recognizes we are ever-evolving. Our journey doesn’t end with one milestone.

I invite you to embrace awe, gratitude, and connection with something in your life daily. My hope is that you choose one tool—practicing gratitude, taking an awe walk, finding a moment of connection—and commit to it just for this week, and see how it impacts you. Reflection is a beautiful part of positive psychology because it highlights growth: how much we’ve grown and where we can continue growing.

Every step you take brings you closer to thriving. Even if today wasn’t a great day, that doesn’t mean you weren’t taking a step forward. There’s always something we can reflect on that we did well, where our strengths showed up.

Now we’ll move into questions and reflections. I’ve come up with a few questions for everyone tonight, and then we’ll open up the floor. I encourage you to reflect on the material we covered. It may have been a lot, and it’s okay if you want to reflect later.

I’d love to hear: what concept resonated with you most today? What is one small step that feels achievable this week to start this journey for yourself? And how might you apply these tools to your personal and/or professional life? Positive psychology can have a lot of impact in the workplace, in families, and in pretty much every type of relationship. There’s room to insert positive psychology in many areas of life.

I invite you to reflect, and feel free to ask any structured questions about the material or positive psychology.

Nicole: Thank you for that presentation, Alyssa. That was amazing. We’ll give people a chance to respond. We have a comment in the chat: “I appreciate this positive perspective. I feel it is similar to using neurodivergent terminology instead of autism spectrum terminology. How you say things makes such a difference to how positive you are able to think of things and reflect on them.”

Alyssa: Oh yes, absolutely. The way we view the world and the way we view interactions really does have a huge impact on not only how we see things, but also how we feel about situations. You’re right—when we use tools to reframe, we gain a lot of bandwidth.

Nicole: There’s another comment: “Powerful tools to put into practice this week. I will take moments when my anxiety seems unmanageable. Connection and gratitude will also be added to my toolbox. Thanks, Alyssa.”

Alyssa: Powerful tools, for sure. Thank you. I hope you enjoy.

Nicole: Any other questions or comments? It looks like maybe not, and people are starting to sign off. I just really want to thank everyone for coming this evening and spending this time with us. We really hope we’ll see you at a future webinar.