SOARING into Strengths
Identify your signature strengths, learn to strength spot in others, and discover how to distinguish between a Growth Mindset and Fixed Mindset.
The SOARING Into Positive Wellbeing Initiative
The SOARING Into Positive Wellbeing Initiative is an empirically based workshop series which bolsters participants’ wellbeing through relevant, accessible practices and insights based on the latest findings from the field of Positive Psychology. The immersive Soaringwords workshops series is designed for long-term care facilities, corporations, health and human service agencies, and hospitals.
When your organization participates in the program, employees and the individuals you serve are given access to all seven workshops to use throughout the year. These virtual, asynchronous modules are based on the SOARING Into Positive Wellbeing Model and bolster strengths, optimism, altruism, resilience, healing imagery, positive narrative, and gratitude. No other organization has synthesized such a wide array of relevant findings from wellbeing science into an award-winning, accessible workshop series. This program enhances and elevates a positive culture as participants learn to make small changes to foster greater wellbeing. This proven approach is supported with empirical results.
Data from our launch among 26 NJ-based long-term care facilities shows significant improvements among three essential categories:
95% of workshop participants discovered and appreciated their strengths.
83% of workshop participants learned and used new skills.
88% of workshop participants experienced a heightened sense of community, connection, and belonging.
Each workshop video has companion interactive prompts to help participants internalize core learnings through meaningful discussions with peers. This proven approach amplifies participants’ positive life experiences as they share about times in their lives where they already used these skills to persevere. At the end of each workshop, participants create a pay-it-forward expressive arts/writing project as a peak emotional experience, synthesizing what they learned in each workshop. Projects are then donated to pediatric patients in hospitals in their local area.
Our goal is impact—the greatest impact possible. To learn more, click on the relevant link below and watch an introductory video. Contact Soaringwords to discuss how individuals in your organization will benefit from the SOARING Into Positive Wellbeing Initiative.
5,000 Johnson & Johnson employees around the world participated in Soaringwords workshops.
Soaringwords workshops build core skills and create a sense of belonging among employees.
Residents, patients and clients love being part of Soaringwords workshops.
Each workshop features the latest scientific discoveries from internationally recognized Positive Psychology experts, including Dr. Richard Tedeschi, expert on post-traumatic growth; Dr. Angela Duckworth on resilience; Dr. Ryan Niemiec on character strengths; and Dr. Kristin Neff on self-compassion. Soaringwords CEO & Founder Lisa Honig Buksbaum hosts the workshops, guiding you through interactive exercise and opportunities to practice the learnings and new skills.
No other organization has synthesized such a wide array of relevant findings from wellbeing science into an award-winning, accessible workshop series.
Virtual or in-person workshops for thousands of participants
Opening session, European Conference on Positive Psychology 2022
Our offerings
Award-winning scientifically-based virtual workshops to enhance physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing
SOARING Into Optimism
Optimism is a choice. Learn how to cultivate an Optimistic Explanatory Style to experience more micro-moments of joy, self- compassion, and happiness.
SOARING Into Altruism
Enhance wellbeing by exploring how doing something kind without the expectation of receiving anything in return gives a powerful sense of meaning and confidence.
SOARING into Resilience
Strengthen your mental agility, coping skills, and resilience by harnessing your inner resources during difficult times in order to bolster your ability to persevere. Learn how to activate the five factors of Posttraumatic Growth.
SOARING Into Healing Imagery
Tap into your inner knowledge and knowingness. Learn how to access internal clarity and guidance with powerful easy-to-use visualizations.
SOARING Into Positive Narrative
Learn how to become the hero of your life. Telling your story helps you better reflect your values and aspirations, providing structure, meaning, and hope, which leads to significant health benefits.
SOARING into Gratitude
Gratitude is one of the most powerful positive emotions. Explore its benefits for your well-being, relationships, and community. Integrate four impactful gratitude exercises into your life and discover how to apply them effectively.
Proven Workshop Components:
Findings from the latest scientific studies show that, when people can learn to take active roles in their self-healing, they can experience greater wellbeing. The SOARING Into Positive Wellbeing workshop series is designed to motivate, teach, and inspire participants on how to experience the “power to heal” that resides within them.
Professional Presentations:
Participants will learn from compelling, easy-to-understand video presentations, approximately 60 minutes long. Each topic covers practical, simple concepts with engaging footage and graphics that support key points. The SOARING Into Positive Wellbeing workshops do not employ scientific jargon and can be enjoyed by individuals of all ages and professions. This comprehensive approach motivates everyone to take active roles in self-healing in order to experience greater physical, emotional, and mental well-being.
Access to Relatable Experts:
Learn from a compelling, easy-to-understand virtual video presentation, featuring healing tools from internationally recognized Positive Psychology experts who are approachable, likable, credible, and communicate cultural competency and humility. Discover the latest findings from Positive Psychology to help you experience greater wellbeing. Each workshop is led by your host Lisa Honig Buksbaum, Soaringwords CEO & Founder, Positive Psychology thought leader, President-elect of the International Positive Psychology Association Health & Wellbeing Division. Each workshop features the research of leading experts including Dr. Richard Tedeschi (Post-Traumatic Growth); Dr. Angela Duckworth (Resilience); Dr. Kristin Neff (Self-Compassion); Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar (Optimism); Dr. Dan Tomasulo (Hope and Gratitude); Dr. Madan Kataria (Laughter); Dr. Jane Dutton (Altruism); and Emily Esfahani Smith (Meaning).
Reinforcing Key Concepts:
Today, hundreds of compelling workshops exist for people who seek enhanced well-being. Unfortunately, within days or weeks, even with the best intentions, most people have difficulty changing their thoughts and actions based on these newfound insights and the desire to change. This is why Soaringwords has created companion, immersive workbooks filled with Appreciative Inquiry prompts to allow them to internalize essential concepts and key learnings. Attendees will also benefit from Soaringwords’ comprehensive Positive Dose Effect follow-up system where participants are sent short, weekly video email reminders to reinforce and practice what they learned.
Pay-It-Forward Projects:
To further reinforce the learnings, participants are invited to create an expressive arts/writing project that will be donated to hospitalized children in their local area. These quick and easy altruistic projects engender community pride and tremendous goodwill, giving participants a profound sense of agency, meaning, purpose, and joy.
Empirical Research and Measurement:
The impact of the SOARING Into Positive Wellbeing workshop series is measured empirically through simple pre- and post-workshop surveys that reflect the change in each participant’s well-being.
SOARING Into Positive Wellbeing Scientific Model
All Soaringwords’ workshops and trainings are based on the SOARING Into Positive Wellbeing scientific model, which has been presented at 16 international scientific conferences. The award-winning model consists of seven foundational Positive Psychology principles:
SOARING Into Positive Wellbeing Model
Strengths
Creating shifts in one’s mind, body, relationships, and overall wellbeing.
Optimism
Choosing to look towards the good, even when times are difficult or painful, with hopeful expectation that things will be good in the future.
Altruism
Building community by giving to others without expectation of return.
Resiliency
Bouncing forward through challenges.
Imagery
Connecting to your inner self through reflection.
Narrative
Sharing the power of positive storytelling.
Gratitude
Noticing and appreciating the good things in and around you.
Soaringwords’ unique approach was codified in 2013 as a new scientific model which has been tested among hundreds of patients in the U.S.
Pre- and post-workshop survey data for the SOARING Into Positive Wellbeing workshop series captures qualitative and quantitative shifts in wellbeing.
Shifts in participant wellbeing are measured through surveys based on the SOARING Into Positive Wellbeing Model, designed by Dr. Margaret Kern, expert on wellbeing measurement creation.
A pre-program survey is given at the beginning of the workshop series. Participants complete surveys at the beginning and completion of each workshop, with a final survey given at the conclusion of the workshop series.
Soaringwords provides turn-key wellbeing solutions and programs for companies, educational institutions, and health care systems around the world.
This accessible, user-friendly platform has been embraced by companies and community organizations to benefit people at the most vulnerable times in their lives when they are grappling with a wide range of challenges.
Soaringwords is highly rated and benchmarked by several Fortune 50 companies and has completed successful initiatives for health care professionals and educators around the world.
The virtual workshops have created substantive change in communities including Silicon Valley, Tampa Bay, and Jersey City when Soaringwords was selected as the mental health component as part of the World Economic Forum's Healthy Cities Initiative launch.
150,000
professionals at Fortune 500 companies
Soaringwords’ award-winning employee-engagement initiatives have been shared with more than 150,000 professionals at Fortune 500 companies including Accenture, Meta, Google, JetBlue, Johnson & Johnson, Lilly, Viacom, and Verizon.
Testimonials
SOARING into Strength: Silicon Valley Year-Long Initiative was launched in Silicon Valley in October 2020. Over the course of one year, 23 virtual workshops were shared with hundreds of participants. This is what participants had to say about the workshops.
Jersey City was the launch city for the World Economic Forum Healthy Cities Initiative. Soaringwords workshops were the mental health component. This is what Jersey City Health & Human Services Staff had to say about the workshops
Linda Ivory-Green, Director, Jersey City Division of Community Health and Wellness
My staff as health educators were able to build their capacity to engage the community on a more intimate level, more efficiently and effectively, while learning communication skills. They were better able to have self-confidence in going out and educating the community on all the various health issues Soaringwords workshops took the staff to a whole different level with self-confidence, building trust amongst themselves and within the groups.
Paul Bellan-Boyer, Director, Jersey City Division of Injury Prevention
We needed to work better as a team, to understand each other, communicate, and trust each other’s experience. We didn’t know that the Soaringwords trainings also would be a lot of fun. And we didn’t know that it was preparing us to respond to a mass shooting and that we were developing skills for a pandemic that would demand new levels of commitment, at the same time we needed new ways of working together to serve the residents of our beloved city.
Stacey Flanagan, Director, Jersey City Health and Human Services
In 2019, the city of Jersey City was selected as a pilot city for the World Economic Forum’s health cities and communities 2030 campaign. … We invited Soaringwords to be one of our partners in the effort so that we could continue to work on mental health together. Making sure that our staff really understands diversity and has a heightened level of cultural sensitivity, understanding, and competency is really at the forefront of our work around health... Read more
Jersey City Health & Human Services Leadership Testimonials, ,
SOARING into Strength: Silicon Valley Year-Long Initiative, ,
SOARING into Strength: Silicon Valley Year-Long Initiative was launched in Silicon Valley in October 2020. Over the course of one year, 23 virtual workshops were shared with hundreds of participants. This is what participants had to say about the workshops.
SOARING into Strength: Jersey City Health & Human Services employee testimonials, ,
Jersey City was the launch city for the World Economic Forum Healthy Cities Initiative. Soaringwords workshops were the mental health component. This is what Jersey City Health & Human Services Staff had to say about the workshops
Linda Ivory-Green, Director, Jersey City Division of Community Health and Wellness
My staff as health educators were able to build their capacity to engage the community on a more intimate level, more efficiently and effectively, while learning communication skills. They were better able to have self-confidence in going out and educating the community on all the various health issues Soaringwords workshops took the staff to a whole different level with self-confidence, building trust amongst themselves and within the groups.
Paul Bellan-Boyer, Director, Jersey City Division of Injury Prevention
We needed to work better as a team, to understand each other, communicate, and trust each other’s experience. We didn’t know that the Soaringwords trainings also would be a lot of fun. And we didn’t know that it was preparing us to respond to a mass shooting and that we were developing skills for a pandemic that would demand new levels of commitment, at the same time we needed new ways of working together to serve the residents of our beloved city.
Stacey Flanagan, Director, Jersey City Health and Human Services
In 2019, the city of Jersey City was selected as a pilot city for the World Economic Forum’s health cities and communities 2030 campaign. … We invited Soaringwords to be one of our partners in the effort so that we could continue to work on mental health together. Making sure that our staff really understands diversity and has a heightened level of cultural sensitivity, understanding, and competency is really at the forefront of our work around health equity and social determinants. … We really embarked on a wonderful journey with Soaringwords, and our staff has really learned a lot about themselves and how they are part of the bigger concerning issue in the community. And, unless they are helping themselves, they are not able to help others, and so really doing some internal work with our leadership team so that they can be stronger.
Collaborate
Click here to view a PDF of the collaboration letter for:
Soaringwords has collaborated with Viacom since 2005
We’d love to hear from you!
