Kinds of symbol Symbol
12 positive emotions, pursuing engagement, and acquiring meaning. Here are each of
these pathways and how they may contribute to happiness. a.
Pleasure Pursuing pleasure is a viable option for increasing long-term well-being.
There is a relation between pursuing pleasure and well-being. Pleasure is indicated with daily experiences of positive emotions. Thus, people will have a
higher sense of well-being when they have more experiences of pleasure or positive emotions. Experiencing frequent positive emotions makes people have a
long-term sense of positive emotion. It is good to have a long-term sense of positive emotions because it will increase the level of well-being in life.
Moreover, experiencing positive emotions also able to affect someone‟s mood, for example when people experiencing positive emotions once in a day, it will make
her mood better during that day. Frequent experiences of positive emotions are also related to higher levels of life satisfaction.
b. Engagement
An alternative route to well-being is through engaging in activities that are exciting and absorbing; a situation that has been considered as
“flow‟. Flow contributes an important task in building many interesting activities. For example,
creating a game from some one‟s math homework by looking at how many
problems one can solve in 30 minutes makes the assignment felt less bothersome and interesting. Creating an interesting game to solve difficult task will increase
intrinsic motivation. Flow situation, therefore, may cause to long-term well-being through increasing positive resources to make an interesting activities, such as
13 nurturing talents, building interest and honing skills. Individuals who experience
flow are expected to be more productive and achieve higher levels of success. Some preliminary evidence supports that people who often experience persistent
flow on tasks, achieve better results. c.
Meaning The final pathway suggested by Seligman 2002 is to pursue happiness
through meaning. Theorists and researchers have often proposed that finding meaning in some
one‟s life is an important determinant of psychological well- being. Seligman 2002 states
“meaning allows someone to overcome the problem in their life through raising the positive social relationships or connecting to a
higher power or purpose ” p.255. An individual achieves meaning in life when he
or she experienced purposeful, significant and understandable life. Purpose in life provides individuals with goals that guide their action and increase the sense of
well-being.