Living a life that blossoms and thrives.
Happy International Women's Day! Today, is a day for celebration, empowerment, inclusion and reflection. My hope is that this article on 12 Ways You Can Flourish, will hopefully spark some self-reflection and action.
What is flourishing?
It means that flourishing involves many feelings, activities, and thoughts that make people feel happy and fulfilled. This means flourishing involves positive emotions, psychological functioning, and social functioning most of the time.
An individual who is flourishing enjoys positive emotions, good health, meaningful relationships, courage, and kindness, and often virtues such as wisdom and courage. Having optimal well-being is similar to flourishing.
How to Flourish
Try these strategies to help yourself flourish.
1. Practice gratitude
Researchers have found that gratitude journals (written lists of things you are grateful for in life) can improve a variety of aspects of flourishing. It is also possible to do gratitude exercises with a friend or romantic partner.
2. Establish better social connections
One of the best things we can do to flourish is develop healthy relationships. The reason for this is that social connection is often considered to be the most important factor determining our health and happiness. For example, social connection has been shown to be one of the strongest predictors of mortality. That's why investing in our relationships is so important.
3. Savor moments
Savoring doesn't only mean appreciating the taste of your meal; it also means appreciating positive events, sharing and celebrating with others, and paying attention to happy emotions. These savoring exercises have been shown to improve happiness.
4. Imagine your best self
Happiness, life satisfaction, and optimism are important aspects of flourishing when you envision your ideal future life.
5. Engage in random acts of kindness
Helping others or being kind to them in unexpected ways has positive effects on many aspects of flourishing, such as positive emotions and happiness. These acts can even inspire others to do the same.
6. Become a volunteer
As with acts of kindness, volunteering can enrich your life by promoting social connectedness, purpose, happiness, and well-being.
7. Stay true to yourself
Not being authentic can result from trying too hard to meet other people's expectations. We need to make sure our actions reflect who we are if we want to be happier. We can flourish more easily when we are being ourselves.
8. Embrace your value
It can be difficult to flourish if we don't like ourselves much. Feeling better about yourself and your life starts with getting clear and knowing your worth. To start, practice self-compassion and reverse negative self-talk.
9. Make sure your needs are met
Psychologists believe that autonomy, competence, and relatedness are our three core psychological needs. A sense of autonomy refers to the freedom to choose our own path in life. Our ability to utilize our capabilities effectively is what we refer to as being competent. A sense of relatedness involves feeling socially connected to others who are important to you. According to Basic Needs Theory, these are the main things we need to feel happy and fulfilled.
10. Establish meaningful goals
We can flourish if we set meaningful life goals and work towards them. Why? Well, simply setting and working towards goals can help us better understand what really matters to us so that we can pursue meaning more easily.
11. Consider therapy or coaching
Seeing a therapist for your mental health or marriage counseling will help you flourish. Mental health and relationships have been positively impacted by many types of therapy. An International Coach Federation accredited coach may be the answer when or if you are ready to move forward.
12. Believe you can
In reality, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that believing in something increases the chances of it happening. Positive expectations are actually helpful for achieving positive results. So try to be optimistic about your ability to flourish.
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References
Holt-Lunstad, J., Robles, T. F., & Sbarra, D. A. (2017). Advancing social connection as a public health priority in the United States. American Psychologist, 72(6), 517.
Goldman, B. M., & Kernis, M. H. (2002). The role of authenticity in healthy psychological functioning and subjective well-being. Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association, 5(6), 18-20.
Vlachopoulos, S. P., & Michailidou, S. (2006). Development and initial validation of a measure of autonomy, competence, and relatedness in exercise: The Basic Psychological Needs in Exercise Scale. Measurement in physical education and exercise science, 10(3), 179-201.
Emmons, R. A. (2003). Personal goals, life meaning, and virtue: wellsprings of a positive life.
Benson, H., & Friedman, R. (1996). Harnessing the power of the placebo effect and renaming it remembered wellness. Annual Review of Medicine-Selected Topics in the Clinical Sciences, 47, 193-200.