Coaching practices for Positive Psychology at Work

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Positive Psychology at Work, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

  • I’m in the middle of something genuinely hard, and when a small good moment shows up I push it away as if letting myself feel it would be disrespecting how heavy this all is.
  • I’m in the middle of something genuinely hard that won’t lift, and I’m so tired of pretending it’s a blessing in disguise
  • On paper my life looks successful
  • When I actually look back over my week it’s almost all stress and irritation with barely any genuinely good moments in it, and I want to see that balance honestly instead of just sensing it’s off.
  • I’ve come far enough through my own version of this that I want to be the person I needed back then for someone just entering it

Practices that may help

  1. Positive Psychology, Made Practical
    Martin Seligman’s positive psychology studies what makes life worth living, organized around the PERMA model — Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. Several of its signature interventions, including three good things, the gratitude visit, and using signature strengths, have genuine randomized-trial support for raising well-being and lowering depressive symptoms.
  2. Benefit-Finding in Adversity, Made Practical
    Benefit-finding — the cognitive process of identifying positive outcomes, lessons, or changes that emerge from difficult experiences — is associated with better psychological and physical health outcomes in observational research on illness, loss, and trauma. However, positive psychology researchers are careful to distinguish genuine benefit-finding from forced positive reframing, which can backfire. Timing, authenticity, and the type of adversity all matter significantly.
  3. Access positive emotion during adversity, not after
    In the midst of stress and difficulty, finding even small genuine positive moments is a resilience mechanism, not a betrayal of the difficulty.
    Broaden-and-Build, Made Practical
  4. Building Positive Emotions, Made Practical
    Positive emotions can be cultivated deliberately through practices that vary what triggers them: gratitude, savoring, meaningful engagement, kindness, and awe are the most studied routes. Barbara Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory proposes that positive emotions expand thinking and build psychological resources over time — supported by observational research, though some specific claims (like the 3:1 ratio) have not replicated. The individual practices have varying but mostly real evidence bases.
  5. Find one thing to appreciate in a current difficulty
    Without toxic positivity, identify one genuine gift — skill, relationship, or insight — inside a current struggle.
    Counting Blessings: The Psychology of Grateful Reflection
  6. Audit your life against PERMA
    Check well-being across all five pillars — emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, accomplishment.
    Positive Psychology, Made Practical
  7. Monitor and adjust your positivity ratio
    Track the ratio of positive to negative emotional states in your day — not to suppress the negative, but to ensure the positive is present in proportion.
    Broaden-and-Build, Made Practical
  8. Share your benefits with others who are facing similar adversity
    Once you have found genuine benefits, sharing them with others in similar situations extends both your benefit and theirs.
    Benefit-Finding in Adversity, Made Practical
  9. Use a signature strength in a new way each day for one week
    Apply one of your top character strengths to a context or relationship where you don’t normally use it.
    VIA Character Strengths, Made Practical
  10. Manage emotional energy
    Cultivate positive emotional states deliberately, since they fuel performance and connection.
    The Power of Full Engagement, Made Practical

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