Stress Tools
Providing interactive stress support when it is most needed
2) ‘Happy Place’ stress tool
This tool brings up a random ‘happy place’ image from a selection previously uploaded by each user. All of the ‘happy place’ images are selected for their ability to generate a positive emotional response within the user. Each image is given a brief description (approx. twenty words) by the end-user, further strengthening the connection between the image and a positive feeling. The ‘happy place’ images have the following benefits:
Positive distraction: The images immediately distract the user away from the negative stressor towards something more positive in their life. This is accompanied by positive emotional response which encourages the mental ability to abruptly halt a negative frame of thinking and begin a more positive line of thought.
Scale of importance: Often, simply placing something positive and important in our life beside something that is worrying us quickly highlights the folly of letting the little things in life have such a disproportionately negative impact on us.
Social Support: Many of the happy place images selected will be associated with a social situation which involved people who love and are loved by the user. This form of positive recollection can be incredibly beneficial for maintaining self-esteem and confidence within a critical environment (e.g. receiving complaints from angry customers).
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More on how it works
This tool acts in a similar manner to personalising your workspace, but with a unique advantage. Many people put up important photos or images which generate positive feelings. When you put the image up in your workspace it holds a strong positive resonance, it makes you feel instantly good. Unfortunately, as you are continuously exposed to the image you become increasingly desensitized to its impact. The Happy Place tool uses a multitude of images and keeps them hidden until their positive impact is required. This greatly reduces the likelihood of you becoming desensitized to the image, and ensures the immediate ‘boost' can be replicated over a much longer period.
