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Dr. Martin Seligman’s PERMA Model –
In last week’s blog entry, we discussed the cultivation of positive emotion, as outlined in the PERMA Model. If you missed this discussion, feel free to go back through the blog archives to catch up on the initial entries in our Well-Being Challenge. In this week’s blog entry we will be addressing Engagement (“E”) in pleasurable or meaningful events, activities, or projects. It is hypothesized that meaningful engagement is a critical component of cultivating well-being.
“E” is for Engagement –
Most simply, engagement refers to those times in which we become completely immersed in an activity or project. Dr. Seligman links this experience with the often used construct of “flow.” Those of you who follow sports may be familiar with the term flow, which refers to the single-minded or complete absorption in a task. Often, athletes report a feeling of flow while competing, during which time they feel completely engaged in the task at hand, and often retrospectively report not remembering or acknowledging anything else occurring around them. Sometimes it helps to think about it like this – think back to the last time that you drove somewhere and suddenly ended up at your destination with little recall for the time that had elapsed or the sights you saw along the way. Flow is almost the exact opposite of this experience but includes the feeling of having time pass rapidly and unexpectedly. However, instead of being checked out mindlessly, you are so engaged in and aware of the nuances of the activity that you are pursuing, that everything else around you fades away and you may even lose track of time.
Keeping in mind the idea of flow, Seligman argues that engagement in activities that become completely immersive and pleasurable often create a sense of well-being for people. However, it is important to note that engagement is a subjective construct that involves using individuals’ retrospective reports of feelings of flow. For example, an individual may choose to begin working on a painting and after several hours reemerge from the task feeling a keen sense of enjoyment. This person may then look back and notice how absolutely engaged and absorbed they were in painting and realize that they have just spent a significant amount of time completing a very fulfilling project. Events like this can then be used to help shape future behavior and to provide us with important information about what adds meaning and vitality to our days.
Data would now suggest that fulfilling engagement in pleasurable tasks or activities is correlated with increased well-being, such that individuals who find themselves frequently engaging in flow-inducing activities often report higher levels of positive emotion (as discussed last week) and overall life satisfaction. Interestingly, Seligman’s research has determined that engagement in immersive and enjoyable activities is something that can be measured separately from the other elements of PERMA. This means that even if you may struggle with cultivating the other components of PERMA, simply incorporating “engagement” into your daily or weekly behavioral repertoire can be enough to contribute to increased well-being. At Equanimity Partners, we often help clients to identify activities and tasks that help provide meaning and fulfillment within their lives. We then help clients to create behavioral action plans to achieve these goals. The end results of these interventions are often quite remarkable. Specifically, identifying unique values and goals related to engagement often helps clients cultivate increased insight into what is meaningful in their lives. Next, such clinical interventions often help clients to organize and structure their lives in a manner that is consistent with their individual wishes and desires for fulfillment and engagement – unsurprisingly, living in this manner often also leads to increased well-being.
Exercises in Cultivating Increased Engagement –
1. In the service of bringing mindfulness to those events that have contributed to your own experiences with flow, try to create a list of past events or activities that have generated a feeling of complete absorption. If this is a struggle for you, try to begin small and just notice activities or tasks that have created a sense of fulfillment. You can then build from there.
2. After creating the aforementioned list, try incorporating at least three of these activities or experiences into your next week. Remember you can always start small – for example, maybe reading a chapter from a new book is enough to transport you into a feeling of complete engagement. This is a quick activity that can be done at any time of the day and is consistent with “engagement”.
You can find a complete discussion of the PERMA model in Dr. Seligman’s book: Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being (2011).
We hope that you have found this week’s discussion of engagement interesting. Next week we will be exploring Positive Relationships – the “R” in PERMA. As always, please feel free to leave a comment or question in the comments section of this blog. All respectful insights are welcomed!
– The Equanimity Partners Staff
Dr. Martin Seligman’s PERMA Model –
In last week’s blog entry, we addressed what it means to be “happy” and referenced the world’s foremost expert on positive emotion: Dr. Martin Seligman.
In his most recent book: Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being (2011), Dr. Seligman outlines a construct he refers to as PERMA. In actuality, PERMA is an acronym for the five components that Dr. Seligman believes contribute to a sense of overall well-being. In today’s blog entry we will be discussing the “P” in PERMA – Positive Emotion.
“P” is for Positive Emotion –
Dr. Seligman explains that positive emotion is one of the pillars upon which well-being rests. Within the category of positive emotion lie feelings such as happiness, peacefulness, security, life satisfaction, pleasure, love, etc. Importantly, the idea of “happiness” is only one emotion which resides in this category, thereby making room for other important aspects of positivity.
If you are interested in exploring your own level of positive emotion in a relatively objective manner, Dr. Seligman has provided a number of empirically validated measures on his website: http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu. For example, the Gratitude Questionnaire allows you to assess your appreciation for past events, while the Work-Life Questionnaire provides a composite score of work-life satisfaction. Additional measures explore constructs of optimism, compassion, forgiveness, and strength of character – all of which can help create a more nuanced understanding of positivity.
Because the pillar of positive emotion includes many components, it may be important to spend some time exploring the various positive emotions that you see arising in your everyday life. Simply exploring the nature of positive emotion can begin to help individuals recognize that “happiness” is not the end all be all of positivity. In fact, even if you wouldn’t describe yourself as a “happy” person, you may find that you are a particularly appreciative or satisfied person. The key idea is to recognize that positive emotion is much more than what is depicted in the general media. In fact cultivating positive emotion is indeed an achievable goal; whereas becoming “happy” can often be a dead-end road leading to additional hardship.
At Equanimity Partners, we are committed to helping individuals cultivate a life worth living. Importantly, our goal is not to eradicate human suffering and rid individuals of negative emotion, but instead to help people get into contact with things that are good and meaningful in their lives. That’s not to say that we are not interested in helping to alleviate suffering, but often this lessening of pain comes alongside becoming more mindful of what is positive in one’s life. Importantly, this goal is very much in line with Dr. Seligman’s research on cultivating positive emotion in one’s life. Specifically, Dr. Seligman conducted a study in which individuals were asked to write down five positive things that had happened during the day. Individuals were asked to complete this task before going to bed each night and to include both large and small items. For example, drinking a favorite coffee drink outside would be counted in the same way as attending a favorite concert. After completing this exercise for a period of time, participants in the study had not only begun to experience an increase in positive emotion, but had also experienced a decrease in negative emotion and depressive symptoms. How inspiring! Simply getting into contact with the good in one’s life was enough to help begin to lessen emotional suffering.
Exercises in Cultivating Positive Emotion –
1. In the service of cultivating positive emotion, let’s begin a positive events journal. Try to keep track of at least three to five positive events that happen each day. It is important to write down these events daily and not to wait and group them at the end of the week. The goal is to become increasingly more mindful of the positive that is happening on a daily basis. Remember to include big and small items. And remember, it’s ok if you’re having a bad day – the goal is to just try to become cognizant of any positive events (e.g. using a favorite lotion, receiving something in the mail, watching a favorite t.v. show, etc.).
2. If you feel like it may be useful, spend some time exploring Dr. Seligman’s website (listed above). Create a user profile and explore some of the questionnaires. It just may surprise you when you begin to consider different aspects of positive emotion and how they impact you on a daily basis.
We hope that you have found this week’s discussion of positive emotion useful and we in turn hope that you will join us next week as we explore “Engagement” – the “E” in PERMA. Also, feel free to leave a remark or question in the comment section of this blog entry. We welcome all forthright and respectful discussion!
The Equanimity Partners Staff
The Search for Happiness –
Judd Apatow’s last comedic film, “This is 40”, received praise for providing frank, if not crude, insights into married life and parenthood. Through a series of evolving conflicts, the film tells a story of a married couple struggling with the types of stereotypical conundrums (debt, declining sexual intimacy, ornery children) we’ve come to expect from Hollywood’s portrayal of the middle-aged. But woven into the fabric of the film is an underlying question of what it means to be happy – independently, in an intimate relationship, and with family and friends.