22 brilliantpositivepsychology account of this. Happiness and sorrow come in the same package; what gives us joy also has the capacity to give us pain. Choosing to accept that sorrow and sadness are as much a part of life as happiness and joy is part of well-being. Happy people are able to accept sadness rather than fight against it or deny it. Happy people feel negative emotions too. Positive psychology is often accused of promoting only the posi- tive and at a glance that may appear to be so, but we will see that there is much more to this `happiness' business than a simple good and bad approach. If you want to understand the meaning of happiness you must see it as a reward and not as a goal. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1900­1944 Happiness as a measure of psychological well-being Psychological well-being is not happiness, but happiness is at the heart of it. Happiness, joy, contentment, fulfilment and excite- ment are some of the many ways in which we describe feeling good, which is an indicator that all is well, whereas sadness, misery, anger and fear are negative emotions that indicate the opposite. The confusion comes when we mix up feeling normal nega- tive emotions with negative emotions that indicate we are not flourishing as well as we could be. Psychological well-being is a modern way of describing the Greek idea of eudaimonia, and positive emotions are the by-product of a fulfilled life. Happiness is an important ingredient of a flourishing life but is by no means its definition. Happiness, fulfilment and satisfaction with one's life are a `measure' of self-realisation and general well-being.