Living a Balanced Life
The amount of happiness or sense of wellbeing experienced in life can be amplified through leading a pleasurable, engaged and meaningful life as well as maintaining physical health. Drawing on the work of Martin Seligman, the Good Mood SafariŽ aims to encourage you to strive for increased happiness through the exploration and enhancement of these areas in your life.
The Pleasant Life
The pleasant life isone which focuses on maximising positive emotions and minimising negative ones. Positive emotions can be divided into three types surrounding our past, present and future.
Past: Positive emotions directed towards the past include satisfaction, contentment, pride and serenity.
Present: These emotions are characterised by higher and lower-order pleasures. Lower-order pleasures are bodilyor sensual pleasures such as good tastes and smells, warmth and sex. Higher-order pleasures include comfort, joy and delight. It is important to experience both types.
Future: Positive emotions directed towards the future include optimism, hope, confidence, trust and faith.
Achieving a pleasant life involves the pursuit of positive emotions about the past, present and future. The Good Mood SafariŽ will incorporate activities that focus on experiencing pleasure including:
The Engaged Life
Seeking an engaged life involves developing an awareness of your strengths and virtues and engaging in activities which implement them. The Good Mood SafariŽ involves activities which focus on the engaged life including:
The Meaningful Life
To lead a life filled with meaning is to live by your strengths in a way which is in line with your values. Living life in the service of something you consider worthwhile and really believe in, such as family or community, assists in creating a meaningful life. The pursuit of a meaningful life leads to satisfaction with life.
The Good Mood SafariŽ involves activities which focus on the meaningful life including:
The Physically Thriving Life
Physical health is an important aspect of wellbeing. Happiness is easier to achieve if your body is healthy. Aspects of the Good Mood SafariŽ that focus on physical health include: