Mentor Grade 7 - 23 sept - PERMA 2

• Nederlands
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 1

How are you feeling today?

😒🙁😐🙂😃

Last week: Perma 

What do we remember

• Positive Emotions 
  
• Engagement
  
• Positive Relationships
  
• Meaning
  
• Accomplishments 
  

What is PERMA?

 It is a breakdown of the individual elements in life that can help us cultivate greater happiness and wellbeing overall.

These elements are the foundation of happiness and understanding how each element applies to the self, is key to understanding where we might be able to make positive changes.

PERMA is the acronym for these elements, and there are five in total:

Positive Emotions

As human beings, we need to be able to feel good, hopeful, and inspired by the things we do and the life we live.

Positive emotions help us in a myriad of ways, including being better able to tackle negative emotions or experiences when they arise. For positive emotions to be able to support us, we first need to ensure that our basic needs are met.

Basic need includes adequate food, water, shelter, and sleep. When these needs are met, we can then open ourselves up to exploring what can further fuel our positive emotions, such as intellectual and creative pursuits, relationships, and fulfilling work.

Engagement

Engagement is sometimes also referred to as ‘flow’ (Csikszentmihalyi, 2002). It’s the process of being fully engaged and immersed in the activities, duties, and tasks that fill our lives.

Not only are we engaged, but we also find a reliable source of passion and commitment to these things. When this is the case, we find we can draw energy from being engaged and find the activities we are committed to both enjoyable and pleasurable.

Relationships

Relationships are a crucial part of our sense of wellbeing and happiness. How authentic these relationships are and the depths of our interactions with friends, family, loved ones, and our wider social circle have a significant impact.

Positive, useful, and inspiring connections lead to more positive emotions, enabling us to feel heard, seen, and supported. Playing an active role within those relationships – by offering support, listening, and helping in return, without expectations – will also lead to greater positive emotions.

Meaning

Building a sense of purpose in life, and using that purpose to contribute to the community is one of the core ways to find meaning in life.

Meaning is about more than just what you do; it also includes the ideas and beliefs you hold – about yourself and life in general – and how well you feel you live those beliefs authentically.

A sense of happiness and well-being isn’t just derived from having already found a purpose or meaning; it also comes from feeling that you have clear ideas for what those concepts might mean and look like for yourself. Even if you are starting to pursue a greater sense of purpose, this in itself can lead to greater happiness and wellbeing.

Achievement

Achievement is not just about a strong sense of success or ‘winning,’ it also refers to how much we challenge ourselves in positive and progressive ways that enable us to further develop our strengths and skills, both practically and emotionally.

Achievement can also be found through setting feasible goals that we can reach realistically and feel a sense of progress in how we want to live our lives. Finding achievement in these ways again helps to encourage further positive emotions, such as confidence, and adds to our continued sense of happiness and wellbeing.

Let's build our 

understanding further

The worksheet is broken down into six journal-like blocks to write your reflections as follows:

Positive Emotions – What brings you positive emotions?

Engagement – What activities do you get completely absorbed in?

Positive Relationships – What relationships bring you joy and support?

Meaning – What larger purpose or cause do you feel drawn and connected to?

Accomplishments – What would you like to accomplish in the next week, month, and year?

Takeaway Reflection Questions – What areas are your strongest? Where could you give more attention to flourish?