Flourishing

When I was a junior (or senior...my memory is failing me) in high school, my psychology teacher, knowing that I had an emerging passion for the field, was supportive and encouraging. When the conference happened to be in Lincoln, he took me along to a conference keynote for the Positive Psychology Association. There, I heard Martin Seligman (the "father" of Positive Psychology) deliver the keynote, and what he said pretty much rocked my world. It was definitely a formative moment in my life. (That sounds really dramatic and a bit cliche, but it's the truth...)

And now leaping to the present. Yesterday was a steaming hot summer day here in Madison. Hot but lovely - after a really intense spring, thanks to help and love from Paul and some friends, I had a whole day to myself. It was truly an incredible day...you forget what it's like to only be responsible for yourself sometimes (almost all of the time) as a mother, and it was some beautiful respite. I did some window shopping (I love Hilldale Mall, but for the love of all things, who can really afford anything in those overpriced stores?!? I'm sticking to Etsy...), spent some time at the Aveda Institute (seriously love this fairly new addition to this city) and poured over old, not yet read magazines for a few hours while dining on seriously decadent food at the always fabulous La Brioche. It was indulgent in every way and absolutely delightful.

I was especially excited to open up Whole Living and find an article about Martin Seligman, It's Time to Flourish. Unfortunately, I can't seem to pull it up online (must be too new) so you'll have to do with my review. Basically, the article summarizes Seligman's newest book and his concept of PERMA - Seligman's five pillars to achieving life satisfaction. Each of the five - positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment - stand individually and are imperative to experiencing a sense of authentic happiness.

This might sound like a self-help book more than a psychology movement, but all of Seligman's work is supported by a serious amount of clinical research and studies. And it just makes sense. Seligman's earlier work focused on depression, and then shifted to optimism, and now focuses on positive psychology. His goal is to help people shift our focus so that we are able to find the strengths and positive experiences in the world around us - not so that all of the problems disappear, but so that our perspective thrives even in the midst of difficulty.

Especially interesting and relevant to me at the moment, the article combats recent studies that show that parenting does not bring people more "happiness," if anything it decreases their happiness and life satisfaction - Seligman points out that he disagrees with these studies, because you can't make conclusions void of the meaning in people's lives - their sense of purpose, engagement, and relationships with others. It's like a do it yourself project - it might be miserable in the process, but the sense of accomplishment and pride makes it more worth it in the end than just paying someone else to do it (we could tell some stories about this in our house!).

So yay. Yay for psychology and life meaning and all of that good stuff. And for flourishing, which happens to be a way awesome word.