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Perhaps we each have our own ideas
about what “being happy” may involve?
For myself,
it seems to involve an ongoing sense of “well being” or “contentment”.
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Martin Seligman, the author of the book Flourish, uses the word “flourish,” instead of the word “happiness.” He writes that, in his opinion, the develop-able components that contribute to “flourishing” are represented in the acronym, PERMA.
PERMA
Positive emotion,
Engagement,
Meaning,
Relationships
Accomplishment…
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Living with those qualities, perhaps functioning a bit like spokes on a wheel
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An important purpose of these pages is to remind myself
to try to stay aware of the preciousness of time...
to try to make optimal use of the time,
opportunities and energy
that I have right now
time is “suspicious”
…it flies by…
so to use “time” well,
to flourish
for the well being of myself and others
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May we all “flourish”…. each and every day
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This post is part of “Nurturing Thursday,” hosted at Becca Given’s blog, On Dragonfly Wings with Buttercup Tea. Please stop by Becca’s blog to view her post and to link into today’s “Nurturing Thursday” posts by other nurturing bloggers… they’re all VERY special!
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2/11/15 Ideas, below, added the following week, based on related and supporting ideas I read and linked into, after creating those PERMA “pages”
Via Character Strengths Qualities: online survey UPENN, Authentic Happiness, Seligman
Positive Emotions: from articles by Barbara Fredrickson, University of North Carolina
Positivity: “self test” from books, website and articles by Barbara Fredrickson, University of North Carolina
PERMA: UPENN Martin Seligman,
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Combinations of those ideas…PERMA, Positivity, Positive Emotions…. put together into “chart form” by Kathy….I created this chart and additional “pages” to use, reflect upon, become more aware about and to nurture living more richly and fully, with the qualities on that page…..
Link to more easily readable, printable, pdf copy of this chart: Chart with Positivity, Positive Emotions and PERMA
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Fredrickson’s “Positive Emotions”
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Below: a combination page:
PERMA, Via Character Strengths, Positivity, Positive Emotions
I created and am using this page for becoming more aware of and nurturing these qualities in myself, in my everyday life…..
(Using the results from my/Kathy’s VIA Character Strengths survey in center column,as an example…I’m sure many of us have similar strengths….so this “reminder page” could be usable for others, too)
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The other VIA Character Strengths qualities, below, that I haven’t developed quite as much… but which might/would probably benefit from being nurtured, too.
At first, I just decided to leave these qualities OFF the page…but then tried to get a bit more “open minded” and thought perhaps I’d add them…and consider nurturing them, too….
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A page with a blank space, in the center column,
to perhaps print out and fill in your own “character strengths or qualities”
….those you might value or want to nurture and develop more fully
(you can get those “Via results” by taking the online VIA survey from UPENN questionnaire website. I think VIA stands for “Values in Action” )
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Flourish…. 🙂
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Pocket Perspectives 
“time is suspicious”. I like that. Flourishing, today, in Ecuador with Kathy over at Reinventing the Event Horizon.
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Oh Joss…how wonderful that you’re in Ecuador! and joining Kathy! ….sounds like you’re in the midst of living a life with “flourish” and PERMA! Will you do workshops on creating delightful paintings on furniture?
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I will be taking that workshop from Kathy soon as I can, you betcha!
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Ohhhh….take lots of photos! Enjoy!!! 🙂
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Wow! This is wonderful!
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I love those ideas from Seligman’s book….really “usable.” The author has a website, Authentic Happiness, (at University of Pennsylvania… UPenn ) and questionnaire website with MANY online surveys about how one is living one’s life etc. One really interesting questionnaire is called “VIA survey of character strengths.” I find looking at those results helpful. The PERMA questionnaire is in that site too! https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/testcenter
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Your images are wonderful. Yes, flourish sounds a lot better than happiness. People feel more pressure to be happy. But, flourish means growth which we all do everyday. I will strive to flourish.
Fabulous nurturing …. Namaste 🙏
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I like that term “flourishing” too. I notice that focusing on actually LIVING the qualities in the PERMA acronym seems to leads to a sense of “flourishing” or “well being”…. as we all strive toward “flourishing”… 🙂 … happy to share… blessings to you… 🙂
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“Time is suspicious” caught me, too. I’m reading the book “A Tale for the Time Being,” and the author plays with the word and idea of time in interesting ways. I like the word flourish. It’s a great way to think of happiness, as flourishing. Thank you. 🙂
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Oh, Robin, I LOVE thinking about and reading about TIME…. it’s amazing how much we attribute to and embellish the idea of “time”…and I think our ideas about, and perception of, time are definitely suspicious!
Here’s Dr. Who with a great description of time:
” time is…..really more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey-whimey……… stuff”
Happy Flourishing….! 😀
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This is in good timing for me, Kathy. I am going to answer the PERMA questionnaire. 🙂
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I added some more ideas/info in the response to your comment below…about the Via character strengths survey…. I’ve taken that Via survey several times over the past many years and it’s interesting to see shifts and changes, as well as consistency, about living with those qualities…they’re all develop=able qualities, too…so that’s terrific! 🙂
I’ll post the PERMA/Via etc pages I’ve been making, if I get energy…. I’m amazingly busy these days with helping teaching English to some delightful refugee women from Ethiopia and Eritrea… and making lots of very basic, colorful materials to help them learn really really basic English…they are wonderful people!!!…an absolute delight to work with…I’m completely inspired by them!!!! 😀
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P.S. I answered the PERMA questions and it gave me a pretty accurate number on the 5 basic dimensions of flourishing. It helps me to see where I need ‘work’. Thanks for sharing!
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Hi Mare, I’m so happy it was helpful.. I like the simplicity and “use-ability” of the ideas.
I also took the Seligman’s VIA character strengths survey and find those ideas and “results” helpful too. ( link to that survey https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/home )
I put the PERMA and VIA ideas together into some visual pages, along with some other idea. I’ll add the combination pages of PERMA, my own VIA results and some Barbara Fredricson ideas about positive emotions and life qualities…I love the ideas! I’m keeping that page near me to refer to and reflect upon…qualities to notice and nurture!
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I added those newer pages to the bottom of this post, above…but I just noticed that I left “gratefulness, appreciative” off the upper LEFT hand column…well, I’m grateful I noticed that I forgot it! 🙂
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I especially like…making the most of the opportunities we have…now. hugs…
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No time like…. “the present” …. 🙂
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Thank you Kathy! I am going to take more tests; it’s a good aid for self-inquiry.
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Wishing you well….the various ideas/surveys etc been very helpful for me…hope some of them are for you too…. 🙂
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