Are you living a flourishing life? Do you feel fulfilled and with purpose? Are you happy and content? Are you healthy? Do you have a sense of total well-being? To be living a flourishing life, then yes is probably the answer. Flourishing is the new happy and recently, I have come across instances where not only are people living flourishing lives, they are consciously trying to help others' achieve it for themselves.
There is more to total well-being than being just happy. Happy somehow for me has a certain glossed-over aspect to it. Happy seems a little too light and flippant to have it as an ultimate end goal for life purpose: to be happy. Leaves you feeling a little flat, doesn't it?
And then in walks 'flourishing'. How brilliant is that word? It just zings with energy and purpose and love and joy. Now 'flourishing' is something I see as worth aiming for. How amazing to be able to say- I am flourishing! It just makes you want to smile and talk with exclamation marks.
After briefly introducing a group of women to my thoughts on 'flourishing', one lady emailed me after and said: 'I love that word- it makes me tingle'. Does happy do that? Not to get down on happy. As a component of a whole- I think it certainly has it's place. But as a whole: flourishing is it for me.
I think it is about limitations. Flourishing feels endless. It oozes potential and opportunity and learning and growing. Happy feels like a full-stop. I am happy. Full stop. But I am flourishing? Aren't you just left hanging and waiting to hear more. As a lover of language and words I can tell it's because 'flourishing' is a verb: a doing word. It means you are in action. It tells us you are in motion, not static. And mostly for me, flourishing encompasses the concept of total well-being. It speaks of health, vitality, happiness, content, connectedness, purpose, fulfillment, love.
But flourishing also makes me feel that there is a journey involved and that it hasn't ended yet. When someone says 'I am flourishing', it makes me think of vulnerabilities and mistakes and of a path chosen deliberately for the better. It makes me think that a conscious decision has been made, for the better. Flourishing speaks of choosing more. Being more. And loving it!
I have written about flourishing today because it is something that I have seen people embrace. It is a state of being that I see people living everyday. It is real. It can be done. It is something that I would like to be able to describe myself as more and more often.
How can you flourish? The 'father' of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, who wrote a book titled 'Flourish' suggests:
- Having gratitude. His particular suggestion is to re-visit a past occurrence which we did not acknowledge and pay tribute to it now: think of an event in the past which was significant to you and in which you didn't appear grateful at the time. Track down that person and thank them in person or in a letter.
- Counting our blessings. By acknowledging aspects in our life for which we are grateful on a regular basis may seem phony or uncomfortable for a start but it gets easier with practice. Even if it is the smallest thing that made a difference in your day, write it down and why you are grateful for it. Try it.
- Focus on your strengths. Seligman suggests we know our strongest qualities, such as leadership, kindness, or love of learning and make use of them every day.
It is a work in progress but I am flourishing. Are you?
Trackback(0)
TrackBack URI for this entryComments (0)
Subscribe to this comment's feed
