There’s a free Ivy League course on how to scientifically live your best live and 40,000 people have signed up

Flourishing is an inspirational buzzword that’s thrown around a lot, but how can we actually achieve it and how do we grow in the right ways?

Well, one online course may have the answer.

Foundations of Positive Psychology is taught by Professor Martin E.P. Seligman, PhD of the University of Pennsylvania and seeks to answer that seemingly enigmatic question.

Dr Seligman believes that flourishing is understanding self-actualization, and comes with studying what makes things “good and positive in life.”

To get to this understanding, he created five components known as the PERMA model— Positive Emotion(P), Engagement(E), Positive Relationships(R), Meaning(M), Accomplishments/ Achievements (A). 

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The course is broken up into five topics for learners that explore D. Seligman’s science.

Examples include creating positive psychological interventions to enhance well-being, opportunities for personal reflection, and skills such as gratitude and resilience to make the most of their professional and personal lives.

The first course in the five-part series, called Positive Psychology: Martin E. P. Seligman’s Visionary Science, explores positive psychology from the “past, present and future” conducted with “Dr. Seligman and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center and Master of Applied Positive Psychology program.

Statistics show that 37 per cent of learners benefited in their careers due to the course, and 44 per cent of learners embarked on a new career path.

Dr. Seligman, who is known as the “Father of Positive Psychology,” researched the prevention of depression, which got the “MERIT Award of the National Institute of Mental Health in 1991”.

The course is available on Coursera, a website that creates courses with certificates and degrees with over 200+ universities and companies. Notable ones include Duke University, Stanford University, Imperial College London, Pennsylvania State University, and Google.

For more information on the free course, click here.