Positive Psychology

 

Martin Selyman, pioneer in positive psychology, defines happiness as pleasure combined with deeper feelings of meaning and purpose. He celebrates three measurable components: pleasure, engagement, meaning. A full life requires them.

Aristotle used the word, eudaemonia to explain human flourishing. 

"For me happiness is the joy we feel striving after our potential," writes, Shaun Achor author of, The Happiness Advantage. Achor believes, "The chief engine of happiness is positive emotions, since happiness is, above all else, a feeling." He pushes beyond  sharing smiley faces.

Some researchers prefer to use the term, "positive emotions," rather than happiness.

Barbara Fredricks, researcher at the University of North Carolina, lists positive emotions:
joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, imagination, awe, and love. Her, 
"broaden and build theory," promotes positive emotions to broaden the amount of possibilities we process. This makes us more thoughtful, creative, and open to new ideas, instead of using fight or flight as negative reactions.

Eager as Love

a seedling greens inside a lemon

cocooned in silence

it startles awake

When the juice of opening 

reveals opportunity

                    - Penny Wilkes

Broaden your scope of cognition and behavior.

       Move into creativity and build more intellectual, social and physical resources. 

            You will rely upon them in the future.