Mental health articles

Authentic Happiness
Many also consider Martin Seligman’s (2002) concept of authentic happiness
to be a stress preventative. Seligman identifi es a set of six personal values
that are associated with authentic happiness: wisdom and knowledge, courage,
love and humanity, justice, temperance, and spirituality and transcendence.
He also asserts that happiness is cultivated by focusing on “signature
strengths,” which are kindness, originality, humor, optimism, and generosity.
Th ough this approach is not directly about stress reduction, its benefi ts seem
apparent for improving a student’s response to stress. As with hardiness, promoting
the characteristics of authentic happiness shift s the focus of therapy
from pathology to the health state, to strengths. Once again, having the client
do an informal assessment of these characteristics is engaging and leads to
positive outcomes.