Biopsychosocial Issues

in Positive Halth
Published by: Global Vision Publishing House

Editors
Amrita Yadava, Deepti Hooda
and NovRattan Sharma

Positive Psychological Functioning with Mindfulness Based

Stress Reduction (MBSR) Program
Dharmender Kumar Nehra*, Sheetal Nehra** and Rajeev Dogra***

There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope.Bern Williams

Since the twilight of human civilization, human beings have wondered about one of the biggest issues
what makes a good life. It is a subject of universal interest and utility, and the scientists who are
engaged in the study of human behaviour believe that an indispensable ingredient of the good life is
that the person himself likes his life. Because of prevailing stress in day-to-day life, the need for
subjective well-being is being increasingly recognized nowadays, more so because of the hectic
lifestyle and intense work pressure under which we live today, everyone seeks peace and harmony.
Experts have also pointed out the inner conflicts that appear when old ways of life are replaced by
new ones, and the individual, denied his habitual security and value bases, feels lost in a changing
world (Johannisson, 2006). From time to time almost every person experiences such agitation,
irritation, disharmony. Once upon a time, curative healthcare used to be the major focus of health
professionals. Individuals too were only concerned about their health when something went wrong.
Through the years, traditional psychology has focused on ways to help in making ill people better by
finding clinically valid and empirically supported methods to help fix things that are wrong with them
(Kauffman, 2006). Clinicians have a number of treatment options for dealing with the emotional ills of
patients, including psycho-education, psychotherapy, and pharmacotherapy. The positive
psychology movement has argued that it is necessary to consider well-being not only in terms of the
absence of psychopathology, but also in terms of human strengths and potentials (Seligman &
Csikzentmihalyi, 2000).
Recently psychologists have reached a consensus that research has seriously neglected the
strengths of human behaviour (Taylor, 2001). Along with the growing attention devoted to well-being
by psychologists in recent years, there has been a great deal of interest in the ability enhancement of
individuals. Peterson and Park (2003) argue that psychology must pay as much attention to fulfilling
the lives of healthy people as to healing the wounds of the distressed. Rightly so, the world has
*

Clinical Psychologist, State Institute of Mental Health (SIMH) PGIMS, Bt. B.D Sharma University of Health
Sciences, Rohtak (Haryana).

**

Department of Psychology, M.D.University, Rohtak.

*** Associate Professor (Clinical Psychology), Department of Psychiatry, PGI-MS, Rohtak.