Are you and your family surviving or thriving? Introducing the PERMA model.

The other day someone described themselves army crawling through their life - they were without question surviving – they went to work every day, they got their children on the school bus, they filed their taxes and they managed to keep their household up and running. This is a familiar circumstance for many of us, we get so consumed with just getting through the day we almost forget to look up and take stock of how we are living out lives.

In psychology we often talk about the mental health curve which was originally developed by Huppert in 2005 and beautifully illustrated here by Emma Hepburn.

This curve helps us to appreciate that our mental health exists on a continuum, sometimes we are ahead and sometimes we are just trying to stay afloat.

For a very long time the field of psychology was primarily interested in the in the left-hand side of this curve, researching, classifying and treating those who were struggling with significant mental health difficulties. It is only in the past 25 years that the spot light has moved to the other end of the continuum in a bid to understand what makes life most worth living and why a small proportion of our population are managing to flourish.

One of the most prominent researchers at this time was Martin Seligman and he and his team developed the PERMA model. This model identifies the five essential elements that need to be in place for us to move into a position of thriving.

Positive Emotions

Engagement

Relationships

Meaning

Accomplishment

Over the next two weeks we are going to explore each of these elements and think practically about how we can create more PERMA in both our lives and in the lives of our children.

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