Bringing Happiness to Our Life

We all want to be happy. When we feel happy, we are more productive, we tend to have meaningful relationships and we feel great about ourselves and others. Positive psychologist, Martin Seligman in his 2011 book ‘Flourish’ proposed the PERMA Model to help us understand the five essential elements to be happy.

According to Martin Seligman, in order for us to achieve lasting happiness, we must possess or experience these five elements in our life;

Positive Emotion (P) - For us to experience well-being, we need positive emotion in our lives. Any positive emotion like peace, gratitude, satisfaction, pleasure, inspiration, hope, curiosity, or love falls into this category – and the message is that it's really important to enjoy yourself in the here and now, just as long as the other elements of PERMA are in place.

Engagement (E) - When we're truly engaged in a situation, task, or project, we experience a state of flow: time seems to stop, we lose our sense of self, and we concentrate intensely on the present. This feels really good! The more we experience this type of engagement, the more likely we are to experience well-being.

Positive Relationships (R) - As humans, we are "social beings," and good relationships are core to our well-being. Time-and-again, we see that people who have meaningful, positive relationships with others are happier than those who do not. Relationships really do matter!

Meaning (M) - Meaning comes from serving a cause bigger than ourselves. Whether this is a specific deity or religion, or a cause that helps humanity in some way, we all need meaning in our lives to have a sense of well-being.

Accomplishment/Achievement (A) - Many of us strive to better ourselves in some way, whether we're seeking to master a skill, achieve a valuable goal, or win in some competitive event. As such, accomplishment is another important thing that contributes to our ability to flourish.

Martin Seligman recommended that we reflect on the quality of our personal and professional life and look for the existence of these five elements. By constantly being aware and taking conscious effort to achieve them, we will live a more satisfying and fulfilling life, be in at home or in our workplace.