The Psychological Services Group (PSG) will run a series of features on the theme of Engagement to promote psychological wellness. Modern lifestyle is highly stressful. Modern policing is also demanding and complicated, posing immense challenges to police officers. If we actively engage in different types of activities, we will effectively increase our psychological resilience and subjective wellbeing.

Benefits of Engagement

Engagement in our work, hobbies and daily activities can keep us motivated and find meaning in life. It also nurtures our happiness and wellbeing. Understanding and applying our character strengths increases our life satisfaction and ability to appreciate others and ourselves.

Core Elements of Engagement

1. Understand and make use of character strengths

Positive psychologists believe that every person has different strengths and potential. If we explore and make use of our strengths for personal growth, we can experience more positive emotions, greater vitality and self-esteem (Wood, Linley, Maltby, Kashdan, & Hurling, 2011). The use of character strengths contributes positively to both physical and mental wellbeing (Proctor, Maltby, & Linley, 2011).

2. Make the most out of the day

Through engagement, officers can cultivate a positive attitude to generate and consolidate positive emotions. We encourage officers to be open and willing to initiate, create and savour different experiences everyday.

3. Live your passion in life

Passion emerges as we immerse ourselves in an activity that we find interesting and are good at. When we are fully committed to the activity, we would experience "flow" – a state of effortless concentration, which is important to stretch our intelligence, skills and emotional capabilities, and will bring us enjoyment and satisfaction.

We hope our colleagues can appreciate and engage themselves in more meaningful endeavours for better psychological health in the long run. In the next issue, the PSG will explain the concept of character strengths. Please stay tuned.