Towards holistic education and psychological well-being

Pages: 143-146
Dimpy Mahanta (Department of Psychology, Cotton College State University, Guwahati, Assam)

The success of any education system lies in developing fully-functioning citizens with a greater sense of physical and psychological well-being. In today’s times, there is a high prevalence of suicides, crimes, negativity, depression in the society and a drastic decline in positive emotions and values which are essential components of education. Positive psychology training comes as a rescue to the numerous problems arising in the society because of overemphasis on the academic aspect of education. The present paper throws light on the importance of positive psychology in holistic education and for achieving psychological well-being. It lays emphasis on literature review and special mention about the empirical findings of the author in her studies on gratitude and optimism and their relationship with psychological well-being. For imparting a more broad-based or holistic education to our future generation, it is of paramount importance to introduce positive psychology as a part of course curricula in our educational institutions. Education system should not just be limited to academic or intellectual growth rather it should be holistic in nature for education to serve its real purpose.