Optimize With Brian Johnson | More Wisdom In Less Time

Martin Seligman is basically the Godfather of the Positive Psychology movement. He’s written a number of seminal books on the science of well-being.   When Seligman first kicked off the Positive Psychology party, he wrote a book called Authentic Happiness. A decade later, he updated his thinking with a book called Flourish.   Short story: A good life isn’t just about maintaining a positive emotional state represented by that big yellow smiley face. A good life is about moving toward your highest potential — flourishing — and that DOESN’T always feel like sunshine and rainbows.   (Of course, the ancient Greeks made a similar distinction with their two different types of "happiness”: hedonia and eudaimonia. We’ll save that for another discussion.)   So, Seligman tells us there are five key facets to the science of flourishing. He captures them in a handy-dandy acronym: PERMA.    Here’s a quick look:   P is for Positive Emotion. Although experiencing a permanent, never-ending positive state is