Aristotle: Striving for the good life and to be happy is what humans should do.
Maslow: Psychological well-being is more than the mere absence of pathology – it is about striving for independence, competence and self-actualization, which is living up to our fullest potential.
I shot this on a morning bike ride. A very happy experience and sight for me.
I am presently taking a course in Positive Psychology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Thought you might like to know more about it. I wrote the following last November under the title Can I Be Happy?
In a word, yes, you can and should be happy. So says, Helene D. Moore, Psy.D., MAPP (Master of Applied Positive Psychology). Dr. Moore was speaking to the Northwestern Memorial Healthy Transitions Program®.
Positive Psychology is the product of Martin Seligman who in 1998 rocked the psychology world by suggesting that there should be two models instead of one for observing patients. The first is the disease model: what’s broken. What needs to be fixed. The second is an optimal functioning model: what’s going right – when we’re at our best.
Seligman wrote,”The exclusive focus on pathology that has dominated so much of our discipline results in a model of the human being lacking the positive features that make life worth living.”
Wellness Secrets of a SuperAger 