A life of fulfilment - Are you flourishing?
Flourishing is essentially experiencing fulfilment in your life. This experience is not exclusive to one aspect of someone’s life, but a variety of different aspects. Flourishing can be achieved when we make efforts to increase our experience of positive emotions, develop positive and meaningful relationships, engage ourselves with the world around us (including your work and your own hobbies), find your lives meaning and achieve your goals. In positive psychology, when all these are met it is referred to as the “good life”. The flourishing experience is not exclusive to certain groups of people, if the effort is put in anyone can experience it.
The experience of flourishing has been found to have several benefits, such as experiencing more positive emotions, lower feelings of helplessness, higher resilience and clearer life goals. There are also physiological benefits to flourishing such as a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and a lower number of chronic physical diseases.
Although there is no way to guarantee flourishing, there are some things you can do to improve your chances, such as tackling the different aspects of the “good life”. One of these things is to work on your relationships. Working to enhance your support system by making new friends and ensuring your existing relationships with friends, family and romantic partners are deep and meaningful can help to improve well-being and support flourishing. Enhancing your sense of purpose is another way to help improve your chances of flourishing. You can do this by figuring out what in life you highly value and keeping them in mind with everything you do. You can also enhance your purpose and meaning of life by ensuring that you are doing things that you find fulfilling in both your work and personal life. Finally, plan events and goals that will help you experience “the good life”. Planning events and goals that are fulfilling, exciting and meaningful to your life can help improve your chances of flourishing.
Overall, flourishing is a delightful experience that provides a sense of fulfilment. The experience of flourishing does in fact take some work, as your emotions, relationships, engagement, achievements and meaning of life all play a part. Many people experience flourishing in their lifetime, and it provides additional benefits to your mental and physical health.