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PERMA Theory of Wellbeing

PERMA is an acronym that stands for the five core elements of happiness and wellbeing proposed by Martin Seligman: Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishment.



What is Perma Theory of Well-Being?


The PERMA Model represents the five core elements of happiness and well-being. PERMA stands for Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishments. American psychologist and educator Martin Seligman designed the PERMA Model.


What is The Perma Theory Used for?


The PERMA theory is an evidence-based approach to improve “happiness” and decrease anxiety, depression, and stress. Many activities can be used to systematically increase positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and achievement.




The Five Core Elements of PERMA Theory

P – Positive Emotions

To have feelings of joy, pleasure, and comfort. Such positive emotions allow one to succeed and flourish in what they focus on and change their mindset to serve their highest good.

While we can not be happy all the time, we can make sure we often experience positive emotions such as pleasure, happiness, contentment, peace, joy, and inspiration.


E – Engagement

When we are fully engaged in a task or project, we experience a state of flow: a mental state in which we lose our sense of time, we lose focus of our sense of self, and we can not observe things outside the task at hand in the present moment. Engagement closely identifies with the act of creation, but one can also experience it when playing sports, spending time with friends, or working on attention-grabbing projects.


R – Relationships

Humans are social beings, and good social relationships are at the core of our well-being. The strongest predictor of our happiness is the time we spend with people we care about and who care about us.

Building positive and supportive relationships takes time and hard work, and they only form when we make active efforts to connect with others. So. commit to spending meaningful time with a friend or family member regularly.


M – Meaning

Finding the meaning of our life is vital to our overall sense of wellbeing. Meaning looks at our sense of purpose and path in life, being connected to something greater than our selfish motivations and ambitions.


A – Accomplishment

There is no question that a feeling of achievement or accomplishment gives us great satisfaction. Achieving our goals from both an external point of validation and an internal sense of success is a crucial driver of happiness.


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