The front matter of “Flourish” by Martin E.P Seligman caught my attention from the beginning where on the first page it states “A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being”, followed by a sentence on the front page stating this book will help you flourish. Based on the first two pages it shows how persuasive and helpful this reading will reading based on the information given in the front matter. ‘Flourish’ is refining what happiness and well-being is but happiness alone does not give life meaning, there are other aspects in life that contribute to that. According to the book there are 5 elements that are permanent for life of profound fulfillment which are

  1. Postive Psychology
  2. Engagement
  3. Relationships
  4. Meaning
  5. Accomplishment

While observing the preface chapter 8 caught my attention which is titled “Turning Trauma into Growth”, given that this is a self health book I believe this chapter will have many relatable/persuasive information and steps on what needs to be done in order to grow as a person. Martine believed that the conditions and choices we choose in our life affects our well-being, and positive psychology makes humans happier.

Chapter 1 begins on how everything started he Martin received an anonymous email where someone told him to visit them in New York not knowing any back story of these people he visited the anonymous in New York after asking a good friend of his if she knew who it was. He goes on to say the original theory if authentic happiness is broken up into 3 parts positive emotion, engagement, , and meaning. These three parts is the importance go heightening your well-being and being your true self. The main concept of flourishing is making right choices in life that will affect the process of your well-being and flourishing in better ways as a person.

I found chapter 2 very interesting where Martin revealed that doing writing exercises helped his depressive oriented clients. I strongly agree and could could relate to the concept of the exercise, studies show that writing down your thoughts or your feelings on a piece of paper helps your mind and anxiety because you are expressing how you feel rather than keeping it bottled up.