Physics of Positive Psychology
An interdisciplinary course for Liberal Education
Umeshkanta Thounaojam, PhD
God help us to change.
To change ourselves and to change our world.
To know the need for it. To deal with the pain of it.
To feel the joy of it.
To undertake the journey without understanding the destination."
-Micheal Leunig
Preamble: We live in time-It moulds us and holds us. We don't know what things will happen in the next moment. The past was once the future, and the future will become the past. Our lives are governed by randomness and chances with the flow of time. Often, it is not only your physical capability which controls your life rather human made norms, rules and laws, personal egos, inertia and other factors etc. dominate the evolutionary processes.
In spite of various existing chaos, there is always some chance factor for something good to happen in life. We will examine how changes arise in natural systems can lead to gentle revolutions in our lives from physics point of view.
Time: What is the nature of time? How it flows? Does it flow horizontally or vertically? Martin Luther King said "The time is always right to do what is right." So, we will examine the concept of time.
Causality: What is Causality? Cause always precede effect. To learn something, I must read. By reading, we can learn something. It's causality.
Relativity: What is Relativity? Einstein told us "When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity ..". We will examine how.
Chaos: "You must have chaos within you, to give birth to a star." said Friedrich Nietzsche. Do we need chaos in our life?
Chance: The world of Probability. Why it is confusing?
Theory of natural selection: An idea that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors.
Thought Formation: Darwin spend two decades methodically compiling evidence for his theory and coming up with responses to every skeptical counter argument he could think of.
Creativity: The ability to make beautiful moves.
Patience: "Trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit" was said by a wise man. By pouring hundred buckets of water, a gardener cannot hasten the growth of the tree to get the fruits. One have to wait for the right season. Nature show us the importance of patience and how it works.
Re-purposing: In this fast world, we must cherish what we have rather than worrying to chase for the things that we don't have or incessantly buying new things. Signs of this value addition and re-purposing the things that you got are spreading just to live a happy life.
Detour: The word "Detour" means "a long or roundabout route that is taken to avoid something or to visit somewhere along the way". Sometimes the most scenic roads in life are the detours we didn't mean to take.
De-cluttering: The more things you own, the more they own you. Keep the things that sparkles joy.
Failure: If you think you face failure, then remember how highways are built. Roadways are always built in such a way that one can always come back to the right route by taking an exit from the wrong route, take a turn and come back to the right route.
Resilience: System's ability to adjust disturbances
Planning: A little forward planning can make you closer to what you want.
Distribution of the counts of every efforts
Technical knowledge vs. Decision making
The game of survival: In this game, being and staying confident is an on going process—it’s not like you become confident and then you stay that way forever. So, it’s important to work on our confidence.
Roots of Unity: Learning it, doing it and celebrating it together.
Links
1. Bhutan's mission to put happiness before economic growth
2. Political Science and Mathematics
3. How Einstein Changed the World
4. Chemistry of dissolving the Nobel prize medal
5. Physics is not just what happens in the Department of Physics