The PERMA+ Model: What Is It?

And
How Can Businesses Benefit?
A goal for most of us is to lead a happier life. Our mood affects so
much of our lives, from our relationships to productivity and our
outlook and motivation. But what makes you happy? And how does
increasing happiness impact your career?

The PERMA+ Model can help you flourish in life, and it can benefit
businesses too. In this article, we’ll examine what The PERMA+ Model
is, where it originated and how it can be an advantage to businesses.
What is the PERMA+ Model?
Revered psychologist Dr Martin Seligman developed The PERMA+ Model,
characterizing what he believed to be the essential components required
to live a happier, well-rounded life. These components are:

 Positive emotion
 Engagement
 Relationships
 Meaning
 Accomplishments
Research suggests that there are positive associations between the
PERMA components and satisfaction in life, work and our physical health,
and that it can also encourage greater commitment within organizations.
The Plus (+) in the acronym represents physical activity, sleep, nutrition,
and optimism – elements that work in tandem with our psychological
health and are just as important to our wellbeing.

How does it impact businesses?

PERMA is more than the building blocks for achieving a happier, more
balanced life, but it can also serve as a predictor of psychological distress,
such as burnout and anxiety.

For businesses, this is a huge benefit, since burnout and mental health
problems can impact productivity and morale among employees.
Increasing PERMA among colleagues can help to improve their
experiences at work. Well-being is founded on the ability to access a wide
range of emotions, and being able to identify positive emotions is
essential to fostering better relationships with other members of the
team, increasing retention and finding meaning in the work you do.

Sometimes, it takes time and effort to notice those emotions, but PERMA
encourages staff to notice them when they may be hidden under the
demands of a busy workday, creating better experiences for colleagues in
the workplace and more positive outcomes for the business overall.
When you have a more optimistic outlook and can find meaning in your
work, you can create a better connection with your teammates and with
clients and customers. It enables staff to deliver better performance by
inspiring engagement and encouraging people to take more chances,
which is better for individuals but also for the organization as a whole.

“Overwork is a main cause of burnout”, says LuxuryRehabs.com, “even if

you’re not personally going through burnout, the numbers indicate that
most people work with those who are. By compensating for your
colleagues’ exhaustion, you may be at risk of developing the same
condition”. By increasing happiness and wellbeing among staff,
businesses can help to alleviate stress, burnout and anxiety, creating a
happier and more efficient workforce.

How can individuals put PERMA+ into practice?

There are several ways that individuals can achieve PERMA+ in their lives.
Setting goals is crucial to help you not only stay on track but understand
what it is you’re working towards. Document the accompanying emotions
you feel when you achieve these goals, as you want to note the activities
you enjoy and that put you in a flow state, as these are the tasks that will
make you happiest over time.

Doing the things you enjoy, day after day, will boost positive emotions,
lower stress and keep you engaged, but they’ll also be tasks where you’ll
value your accomplishments because you’ll be working on things that
truly matter to you. Keeping a gratitude journal can also help you to note
down the positive emotions you feel throughout the day and the tasks or
relationships you value that make you feel good in yourself and your
abilities.

When applying PERMA+ to your relationships, focus on cultivating

authentic relationships with colleagues. This can create a happier
association with work but also helps you to cope more effectively with
stress. Arrange lunches or coffee breaks regularly with your colleagues
and reach out to see how they’re doing.

You also want to get meaning and purpose from the work that you do,
which provides greater professional satisfaction and is your drive to get
up and come to work every day. This can be achieved by stepping outside
of your comfort zone and identifying the values you’re aligned with at
work. You can also get value and a sense of purpose from helping others,
whether that’s working on team tasks more often, mentoring people or
reaching out to help people you can see are struggling.

UNIT 9 positive psychology

• Positive psychology is the scientific study
of what makes life most worth living,
focusing on both individual and societal
well-being. It studies "positive subjective
experience, positive individual traits, and
positive institutions...it aims to
improve quality of life.] It is a field of study
that has been growing steadily throughout
the years as individuals and researchers
look for common ground on better well-
being.
• Positive psychology began as a new
domain of psychology in 1998 when Martin
Seligman chose it as the theme for his term
as president of the American Psychological
Association.It is a reaction against past
practices, which have tended to focus on
mental illness and emphasized maladaptive
behavior and negative thinking. It builds on
the humanistic movement by Abraham
Maslow, Rollo May, James Bugental,
and Carl Rogers, which encourages an
emphasis on happiness, well-being, and
 positivity, thus creating the foundation for
what is now known as positive psychology.

Positive psychologists have suggested a number of factors may contribute to

happiness and subjective well-being. For example, social ties with a spouse,
family, friends, colleagues, and wider networks; membership in clubs or social
organizations; physical exercise; and the practice of meditation Spirituality can
also be considered a factor that leads to increased individual happiness and
well-being

What are the five main elements of a life of

flourishing and well-being?
There are five building blocks that enable
flourishing – Positive Emotion, Engagement,
Relationships, Meaning, and
Accomplishment (hence PERMA™) – and
there are techniques
Positive Emotion: This route to well-being is hedonic – increasing positive emotion.
Within limits, we can increase our positive emotion about the past (e.g., by cultivating
gratitude and forgiveness), our positive emotion about the present (e.g., by savoring
physical pleasures and mindfulness) and our positive emotion about the future (e.g.,
by building hope and optimism).

Unlike the other routes to well-being described below, this route is limited by how
much an individual can experience positive emotions. In other words, positive
affectivity is partly heritable and our emotions tend to fluctuate within a range. Many
people are, by disposition, low in experiencing positive emotion. Traditional
conceptions of happiness tend to focus on positive emotion, so it can be liberating to
know that there are other routes to well-being, described below.

Engagement: Engagement is an experience in which someone fully deploys their

skills, strengths, and attention for a challenging task. According to Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi, this produces an experience called “flow” that is so gratifying that
people are willing to do it for its own sake, rather than for what they will get out of it.
The activity is its own reward. Flow is experienced when one’s skills are just
sufficient for a challenging activity, in the pursuit of a clear goal, with immediate
feedback on progress toward the goal. In such an activity, concentration is fully
absorbed in the moment, self-awareness disappears, and the perception of time is
distorted in retrospect, e.g., time stops. Flow can be experienced in a wide variety of
activities, e.g., a good conversation, a work task, playing a musical instrument,
reading a book, writing, building furniture, fixing a bike, gardening, sports training or
performance, to name just a few.

Relationships: Relationships are fundamental to well-being. The experiences that

contribute to well-being are often amplified through our relationships, for example,
great joy, meaning, laughter, a feeling of belonging, and pride in accomplishment.
Connections to others can give life purpose and meaning. Support from and
connection with others is one of the best antidotes to “the downs” of life and a
reliable way to feel up. Research shows that doing acts of kindness for others
produces an increase in well-being.

From an evolutionary perspective, we are social beings because the drive to connect
with and serve others promotes our survival. Developing strong relationships is
central to adaptation and is enabled by our capacity for love, compassion, kindness,
empathy, teamwork, cooperation, self-sacrifice, etc.

Meaning: A sense of meaning and purpose can be derived from belonging to and
serving something bigger than the self. There are various societal institutions that
enable a sense of meaning, such as religion, family, science, politics, work
organizations, justice, the community, social causes (e.g., being green), among
others.

Accomplishment: People pursue achievement, competence, success, and mastery

for its own sake, in a variety of domains, including the workplace, sports, games,
hobbies, etc. People pursue accomplishment even when it does not necessarily lead
to positive emotion, meaning, or relationships.

Each of these five building blocks contributes to well-being and:

 Is pursued for its own sake, not as a means to an end
 Is defined and measured independently of the other elements

The Benefits of Well-Being

Research demonstrates that well-being is not only valuable because it feels good,
but also because it has beneficial real-world consequences. Compared to people
with low well-being, individuals with higher levels of well-being:
 Perform better at work
 Have more satisfying relationships
 Are more cooperative
 Have stronger immune systems
 Have better physical health
 Live longer
 Have reduced cardiovascular mortality
 Have fewer sleep problems
 Have lower levels of burnout
 Have greater self-control
 Have better self-regulation and coping abilities
 Are more prosocial
Research has identified optimism as one of the key contributors to well-being.
Studies show that optimism brings many benefits compared to pessimism, including:
 Less depression and anxiety
 Better performance at school, sports, and work
 Reduced risk of dropping out of school
 Better physical health outcomes, including fewer reported illnesses, less coronary
heart disease, lower mortality risk, and faster recovery from surgery.

2 How an attitude of gratitude can be

developed.
Why Saying “I Am Grateful” Matters
Having an attitude of gratitude is important. Gratitude shifts our mindset.
Shifting focus from ourselves to appreciating someone or something gives
us the opportunity to express thankfulness for every part of our life. An
attitude of gratitude means making the conscious habit of expressing
appreciation on a regular basis for big and small things alike. We may be
grateful for our relationships, health, business, material items, food in our
cupboards, running water in our homes, and our overall sense of well-
being.

When we have an attitude of gratitude, we operate from a place of

abundance. Cultivating a grateful mindset helps us feel happier, more
positive, and more compassionate with ourselves and others around us.
Focusing on what makes us feel grateful allows us to develop better habits
of expressing appreciation for the people and things that matter most in our
life. Gratitude is a thankful appreciation for what we have, not what we lack.
How to Develop an Attitude of Gratitude
1. Begin by asking yourself, “What can I be grateful for?”

2. When you wake up every day, say or write down three things that you
are grateful for.

3. At the end of your day, tell someone three things that happened which
made you grateful.

4. Start a gratitude journal to write down what you are grateful for, proud of,
and excited about.

5. Reflect and acknowledge what you have done and accomplished in the
last day/week/month/year. Give yourself credit for the big and small wins
you have achieved.

6. Acknowledge other people and thank them for

inspiring/helping/supporting you.

7. Observe your thoughts and meditate on gratitude.

8. Surround yourself with people who share a mindset of gratitude and

spend more time with them.

9. Take ownership of your present by giving thanks for what you have and
where you are in your life right now.

10. Commit to a gratitude practice and be intentional with your insights

The simplest way to start developing an attitude of gratitude is
to choose to appreciate things in life. It's never too late to start. It
takes a bit of work but having an attitude of gratitude is one of the
healthiest habits to cultivating a fulfilling and happy life. Give thanks
every single day.