Table 2 Overview of intervention sessions, goals, and home practice

Session 1: Positive Events, Savoring, Gratitude

Noticing positive life events is associated with increases in positive emotion and well-being [88,89,90,91,92], and may have a restorative effect on psychological resources used to combat and cope with stress [93]. Savoring a positive event, also known as capitalizing or amplifying, can prolong the positive emotional effect and work to strengthen the association between that event and the resulting positive emotion [93, 94].

Gratitude is a feeling of thankfulness and appreciation expressed toward something (e.g., person, spiritual entity, place). Studies in a variety of populations where participants kept a gratitude journal have found benefits including less negative emotion, increased positive emotion, better sleep quality, and greater satisfaction with life [95,96,97].

Identify positive events and the associated positive emotion; practice ways to savor the experience of positive events; and learn to practice gratitude.

Noting a positive event each day and writing about it (savoring); starting a daily gratitude journal and the daily emotion check-ins. The gratitude home practice continues through the rest of the intervention period.

Session 2: Everyday Mindfulness and Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness is defined as intentionally paying attention to one’s experience in the present moment without judgment [98]. Interventions aimed at increasing mindfulness are associated with increases in positive emotion [99].

Learn and practice the awareness and nonjudgment components of mindfulness.

Daily informal mindfulness activities, a 10-minute formal breath awareness activity, continuing the gratitude journal and daily emotion check-ins.

Session 3: Positive Reappraisal

Positive reappraisal is defined as reinterpreting an event’s significance in a more positive light. Stress and coping theory states that an individual’s appraisal of an event affects the degree to which that event is experienced as stressful [100]. Positive reappraisal is consistently associated with an increase in positive affect [101,102,103,104].

Understand positive reappraisal and the idea that different forms of positive reappraisal can all lead to increased positive emotion in the face of stress.

Reporting a relatively minor stressor each day, then listing ways in which the event can be positively reappraised. The daily formal mindfulness practice, gratitude journal,

and the daily emotion check-ins.

Session 4: Self-Compassion

Self-compassion is extending warmth and understanding to oneself in the face of failure or suffering [30]. It has been shown to be associated with increased psychological well-being and positive affect [105]. We added self-compassion content for LEAF 2.0 based on our experience with previous caregiver studies [26] that indicated there was a need for participants to be less critical of themselves, and we anticipate that self-compassion will make it easier for participants to engage with the other skills in the program.

Learn about how to show compassion for oneself, especially in the context of caregiving. Understand how self-compassion relates to the other positive emotion skills in the LEAF 2.0 course.

Listing an act of self-compassion each day. The 10-minute mindful breathing, gratitude journal, and daily emotion check-ins continue.

Session 5: Personal Strengths, Attainable Goals

Identifying and focusing on one’s personal strengths is a type of self-affirmation that can lead to increased positive affect. Focusing on personal strengths is associated with better physical and psychological outcomes [106, 107].

Attainable Goals: Setting small, short-term goals is correlated with subjective reports of well-being, and perceptions of progress toward goals are associated with increased positive emotion as well as greater life satisfaction [108,109,110].

List personal strengths and note how they may have used these strengths recently; understand characteristics of attainable goals and set goals for the week.

Listing a strength each day and how it was “expressed” behaviorally, working toward one of the attainable goals and noting progress each day. The 10-minute mindful breathing, the gratitude journal, and the daily emotion check-ins continue.

Session 6: Skills Summary

Participants will receive a summary of the LEAF 2.0 course as a whole. Participants will identify which skills they enjoyed or did not enjoy and why. They will make a plan to practice the positive emotion skills beyond the LEAF 2.0 course.

Course wrap-up. The 10-minute mindful breathing, the gratitude journal, and the daily emotion check-ins continue.