M is for Meaning (DW#981)
Oct 18, 2021
We have been exploring Martin Seligman’s model of happiness and wellbeing based on PERMA which postulates that a good life isn’t just about maintaining a positive emotional state. A good life is about moving toward your highest potential - flourishing — and that doesn’t always feel like sunshine and rainbows.
Today we will start talking about the M in PERMA which stands for meaning
Positive psychology explains that we need to have a connection to a deep sense of purpose in our lives.
Positive psychology experts explain that "We’re not sure exactly where meaning comes from, if it is inherent, or if it is ‘real’ at all; what we do know is that humans flourish when they have it and suffer when they don’t."
Victor Frankl, the 20th century Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist who survived the concentration camps, developed his approach to meaning and his therapy for treating the lack of meaning before World War II, but refined it during his experience in Nazi concentration camps. His ground-breaking work on logotherapy and his experience in the camps is titled "Man’s Search for Meaning" for good reason – the main idea in his theory is that humans are driven by their desire for meaning.
Frankl developed three core components to his philosophy:
- Each individual has a healthy "core."
- Each individual has the internal resources to "use" their healthy internal core.
- Life offers each individual purpose and meaning, but it does not owe anyone happiness or fulfillment (Good Therapy, 2015).
Further, Frankl proposed that meaning in life can be discovered in three ways:
- By creating a work or accomplishing some task.
- By experiencing something fully or loving somebody.
- By the attitude that one adopts toward unavoidable suffering (Good Therapy, 2015).
In other words, as human beings, we have both the freedom and the responsibility to bring forth our best possible selves by realizing the meaning of the moment in every situation.
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