The supports for engagement (DW#970)
Oct 01, 2021
Remember that we started by establishing that the science of well-being is grounded on the universal virtues of major religious philosophical traditions. So in order to engage in life and feel great at the same time, we need to engage our own strengths and core virtues.
Here is how Seligman puts it:
"In authentic happiness theory, the strengths and virtues—kindness, social intelligence, humor, courage, integrity, and the like (there are twenty-four of them)—are the supports for engagement. You go into flow when your highest strengths are deployed to meet the highest challenges that come your way. In well-being theory, these twenty-four strengths underpin all five elements, not just engagement: deploying your highest strengths leads to more positive emotion, to more meaning, to more accomplishment, and to better relationships."
What this means is that the more opportunities we have to engage what Seligman calls ‘core strengths and virtues’ in our daily lives, the happier we will be.
Now while we may all subscribe intellectually to basic human values, individually we express them differently and have a unique combination of these strengths and virtues within us.
We can best understand this idea by getting clear on what our own strengths are. So, before we go any further with this, please do take the "VIA Survey of Character Strengths" test. It will help greatly in a deeper understanding of what matters to you and makes you happy.
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