PERMA+V (Vitality ,Optimism & Resilience) MODEL

A Well-being Theory by Martin Seligman. Seligman believes that the PERMA Model’s five core elements are what people need in order to achieve a healthy sense of well-being, fulfilment, and satisfaction in life. That can lead to finding life’s true meaning. In his book, Authentic Happiness, Martin Seligman suggested three types of a happy life which can be studied:

• The Pleasant Life: It refers to the “life of enjoyment,” where people enjoy and savour the various positive feelings and emotions in their daily life. Coupled with pursuing interests, having entertainment and relationships.

• The Good Life: It refers to the “life of engagement” where people engage themselves deeply in various activities and experience a flow in their life. For instance, losing a sense of time when you engage yourself in reading a story by your favourite author.

• The Meaningful Life: It refers to the “life of affiliation,” where people try to derive meaning and purpose in life by extending themselves and contributing to society. When you go beyond the limited individual goals to larger goals at the community and global level, it helps develop meaning to one’s life and leads to a positive sense of well-being.

• Abraham Maslow (1962) was one of the first in the field of psychology to describe “well-being,” with his characteristics of a self-actualized person

• In 1998, Dr Martin Seligman used his inaugural address as the incoming president of the American Psychological Association to shift the focus from mental illness and pathology to studying what is good and positive in life. From this point in time, theories and research examined positive psychology interventions that help make life worth living and how to define, quantify, and create wellbeing

These five elements or components of PERMA are:

• Positive emotion

• Engagement

• Relationships

• Meaning

• Accomplishments

Ways to build positive emotion may include:

• Spend time with people you care about

• Do hobbies and creative activities that you enjoy

• Listen to uplifting or inspirational music

• Reflect on things you are grateful for and what is going well in your life

Ways to increase engagement:

• Participate in activities that you really love, where you lose track of time when you do them

• Practice living in the moment, even during daily activities or mundane tasks

• Spend time in nature, watching, listening, and observing what happens around you

• Identify and learn about your character strengths, and do things that you excel at

How to build relationships:

• Join a class or group that interests you.

• Ask questions of the people you don’t know well to find out more about them.

• Create friendships with people you are acquainted with.

• Get in touch with people you have not spoken to or connected with in a while.

Ways to build meaning:

• Get involved in a cause or organization that matters to you

• Try new, creative activities to find things you connect with.

• Think about how you can use your passions to help others.

• Spend quality time with people you care about.

Ways to build accomplishment:

• Set goals that are SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound

• Reflect on past successes.

• Look for creative ways to celebrate your achievements.

The Plus (+) in PERMA Yet happiness goes beyond just these five elements, and the + can include other important areas as well, such as optimism, nutrition, physical activity and sleep. These are areas equally important to mental well-being. Optimism Optimism is a positive emotion critical to building resilience and well-being. Optimism is the belief that life will have more good outcomes than bad. People who are optimistic are more likely to be resilient to stressful life events Resilience-Promoting Qualities Resiliency research most often focuses on identifying the protective mechanisms associated with positive adaption in children. In this vein, an extensive look at the substantive literature reveals the following domain-specific qualities that promote child resilience:

• Individual/Internal to the Child Domain: Intelligence, agreeable temperament, optimistic outlook, problem-solving skills, self-esteem, self-efficacy, emotional flexibility, active lifestyle, emotional regulation, humour, autonomy, and empathy.

• Social/Family Domain: Secure infant attachment to a caregiver, warm and supportive parents, parental harmony, prosocial bonding to a supportive adult, meaningful peer friendships, healthy sibling relationships, social competence, cooperative learning skills, ability to solicit help, parental supervision, and effective parenting skills.

• Contextual/Environmental Domain: Safe neighbourhoods, high-quality schools, community closeness, access to after-school programs, supportive extended family, successful school experiences, valued social role (e.g., job), positive mentors, faith-based or other meaningful community membership.

• Relevant: Resilience Training

Finally, in his deeply moving Ted Talk, Michael Kalous provides several heart-wrenching examples of children who’ve overcome and sometimes even thrived following severe trauma. Kalous shares a very personal example of his own traumatic childhood, which was characterized by extreme instability and abuse. Yet, Kalous also describes how he was able to grow into a healthy, successful adult (e.g., college graduate, intact marriage, stable employment, etc.).

• Having a Hero: For example, a spiritual or human moral compass that is accepting and forgiving.

• Having a Refuge: For example, somewhere such as a school where a child can escape stress.

• Having a Place of Solitude: For example, a peaceful place of serenity such as the outdoors.

• Having a Voice: For example, Kalous literally describes how participation in the choir enabled him to be heard and helped him to externalize his internal feelings.

• Having a Purpose: For example, serving others as a way to provide perspective and foster a sense of purpose.

Along with some effective parenting styles, the following list contains a number of more concrete and specific ways in which parents and caregivers can promote resilience in children:

• Build Empathy: Help your child develop empathy by teaching him/her how to really consider and visualize the struggles faced by others.

• Identify a Go-To Person: Make sure your child has a close and supportive adult he/she feels comfortable confiding in.

• Listen: Ensure that your child feels like you aren’t simply hearing, but are truly tuned in to what he/she has to say.

• Accept Children for Who They Are: Avoid pushing your child in a direction he/she doesn’t want to go; but instead, celebrate the person he/she is.

• Identify Strengths: Find out what your child is really good at and offer encouragement and support.

• Do-Overs: Make sure your child knows that mistakes along the way are okay; present them as learning experiences and areas where he/she can try to do better next time.

• Develop Responsibility: Give your child opportunities for developing mastery and responsibility, this will encourage self-esteem and -efficacy.

• Offer Meaningful Participation: Offer your child opportunities to engage in activities he/she really cares about.

• Teach Problem-Solving: Show your child ways to deal with problems, providing both role modelling and encouragement.

• For the Goal of Humor: “Come on, laugh it off.” Helping your child to see the humour in a situation, as this is a powerful tool he/she will be able to apply in many difficult situations in life.

• For the Goal of Providing Hope: “I know it looks bad now, but you will get through this.” There is really no doubt that fostering a sense of optimism gives children a big advantage when it comes to many prosocial outcomes.

• For the Goal of Positive Reframing: “What can you learn from this so it doesn’t happen next time?” Reframing helps children to have a more realistic and healthy perspective of a situation. Children with emotional flexibility benefit from a good repertoire of coping solutions to draw from when needed.

The following seven resiliencies are described as a sort of “mental map” that can help adolescents cope effectively with adversity:

• Insight: Help your teen develop resilience by asking him/herself questions that reveal personal truths.

• Independence: Help your teen develop resilience by teaching autonomy and self-reliance.

• Relationships: Help your teen develop resilience by establishing meaningful connections with others.

• Initiative: Help your teen develop resilience by taking charge of his/her life.

• Creativity: Help your teen develop resilience by using his/her imagination to deal with feelings.

• Humour: Help your teen develop resilience by finding humour in difficult situations.

• Morality: Help your teen develop resilience by encouraging him/her to do the right thing.

16 Resilience Activities for Kids

1. Do Volunteer Work: When it comes to encouraging resilient, compassionate and empathetic kids; there really is no substitute for helping others in need. Service work draws thoughts away from the self toward concern for others. This altruistic mindset promotes responsibility and autonomy while making a difference in society. Truly, what better way is there to add meaning and purpose to a young person’s life than to support others?

2. Get a Job: If employment is feasible for the teen’s lifestyle and schedule, having a job fosters resilience by building a sense of independence, self-efficacy, and the type of pride that comes from taking on responsibility and earning one’s own money.

3. Get Involved in Extracurricular Activities: Engaging in fun and rewarding activities promotes youth resilience by enhancing mastery, social interaction, and joy.

4. Practice Self-care: Healthy self-care behaviours such as adequate sleep, good eating habits, and physical exercise promote resilience by encouraging a balanced lifestyle that provides young people with the strength and energy to deal with stressful situations.

5. Be Optimistic: Optimism is a recurrent theme in resilience literature, as seeing the positive in a situation is an important way to encourage young people to have a resilient mindset that supports adaptive coping.

6. Try Relaxation: Given that relaxation is incompatible with stress, techniques that involve deep breathing and relaxation are important and manageable methods that kids and teens can apply on their own in order to support emotional balance.

7. Listen and Learn from Others: Young people who know how to solicit and learn from the guidance offered by others benefit from additional resilience resources they can utilize when needed.

8. Try New Things: While trying things that may be unfamiliar or scary, it also leads to the discovery of rewarding and enjoyable activities. Taking such risks also supports a youth’s self-esteem, autonomy, and mastery.

9. Practice Empathy: As noted earlier, empathy is exceedingly important for fostering resilience in young people because it supports a compassionate and giving mindset with less emphasis on one’s own problems.

10. Set Reasonable Goals: Young people, particularly adolescents, often find themselves stressed due to feeling overworked, overscheduled and unable to meet desired goals. Teens have greater amounts of resilience when they experience a sense of pride that comes with achieving manageable objectives.

11. Take Breaks: Many young people feel enormous academic pressures and are often extremely driven toward achievement. While dedication is positive, it is also important for healthy psychological and physical health to take necessary breaks.

12. Establish a Consistent Routine: Maintaining structure is an important way for young people to feel in control and avoid becoming overwhelmed.

13. Form Meaningful Friendships: The peer connections made by kids and teens are key influences on involvement in healthy versus risky activities. Resilience is enhanced when young people establish meaningful, prosocial bonds with peers.

14. Be Aware of Stressors: Young people are not always aware of the underlying stressors that make life more difficult. For example, an adolescent whose grades are suffering, may not realize the connection between his/her declining grades and a schedule characterized by low sleep and poor study habits. By identifying these stressors, a teen is able to make life changes that promote resilience.

15. Accept Change: By learning that change is an inevitable part of life, young people will develop the mental stamina to accept transitions as learning experiences.

16. Find your Passion!: Adults and adolescents alike enjoy more fulfilling lives when they participate in meaningful activities. It is by discovering these underlying passions that a life of resilience and joy becomes possible.

Experts in the field like Namka use models before introducing a new psychological framework to a classroom. In her work, Namka helps children in classrooms and people in psychiatric hospitals with emotional, social, and vocational growth skills. In her work, Namka relies on the following model:

1. Determine which psychological skill is most useful for your group to learn

2. Use a language which matches the general vocabulary of your students and their understanding of specific life issues

3. Start a discussion on the concept or skill using relatable life examples that the children feel at ease discussing

4. Choose a book, a video, a film, an activity or a creative project that will give the students a practical idea as to how this skill might show in their daily life.

5. Throughout the discussion, ask students to reflect on how they connect with the introduced concept. Reward students who demonstrate a clear understanding of the significance of the concept.

Lemme know your thoughts, happy learning :)