How to Thrive and Flourish

“To flourish is to find fulfillment in our lives, accomplishing meaningful and worthwhile tasks, and connecting with others at a deeper level—in essence, living the good life.”

– Dr. Martin Seligman

Surviving Versus Flourishing

Are you confident, inspired, energetic, and fully flourishing? Or are you feeling tired, maybe irritable, a little run down and unmotivated? Or somewhere in between?

I know that I’ve been in both places before, in both my personal and professional life.

Just Surviving

If there were one common denominator with most the clients I individually work with, it’s that they’re tired of “just surviving” and they want to live a more meaningful life, fully thriving and flourishing. It’s not just a case of surviving or thriving, though. Much like a fuel gauge doesn’t say “full” or “empty” there are indicators to all the levels between the two.

Out of Fuel

When you’re driving a car and the oil light or fuel light turns on, you know you can continue on for a bit, but that you’re going to have to add some oil or fuel sometime soon.

If you don’t, you will run out of gas, stopping you in your tracks, or you’ll ruin your engine if you continue to drive with low oil. You need to stop and do what’s necessary to get things running smoothly again.

The same can be said for when the warning signs pop up in our life. It’s time to slow down and do some recharge activities to get out of that stress zone to ensure that I get back into a sense of wellbeing.

The Flourish Scale

Inspired by the Mental Health Continuum, I’ve come up with a six-zone Flourish Scale that helps to identify what’s going on emotionally, physically, mentally and behaviorally when we’re in each zone. Of course, this is just a general scale and can be personalized to each individual.

Much like a fuel gauge, this Flourishing Scale indicates the nuances between full and empty. The line between “healthy” and “surviving” in the middle is where the warning light comes on.

When you find yourself slipping into survival mode, you might start arriving late, dropping things, forgetting events, misplacing things, procrastinating, reacting irritably and acting judgmentally.

Do you know what your warning signs are?

Remember that where you are at on the scale is continuously in flux and may be different for different areas. By checking in with what is going on in your inner and outer world, you can choose self-care activities that support your needs, creating a shift in your mindset, thoughts, emotions, and behaviours.

Your Own Flourishing Scale

1. CREATE YOUR FLOURISHING SCALE
   Using the scale above, make your own personal Flourish Scale, by noting your emotions, thoughts, physical state and behaviours for each colour zone. If you haven’t been in some of the extreme zones, that’s ok. Just use the example as your guide.
2. WHAT ACTIVITES CONTRIBUTE TO EACH ZONE?
   Now look at each zone and note what you are doing/not doing when you are in that zone? Some things to look at would be sleep, nourishment, exercise, social activities, hobbies etc.
3. WHAT WORKS FOR YOU?
   What do you already do to shift into flourishing mode? What are the things that help you to bounce back?
4. WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO TRY?
   What activities do you think might be effective at boosting your health, spirit and morale?

How to Boost Your Flourish Level

There are many things you could do to increase your overall level of Flourishing.

•    physical self-care
  sleep, hydration, exercise, nutrition, massages, spa days, etc.
•    mental/emotional self-care
  meditation, journaling, gratitude, therapy, time with friends and family, vacations, etc.
•    spiritual self-care
  going on a retreat, reading spiritual or inspiring texts, yoga classes, meditation, etc.

A massively transformational activity is setting time daily for mindset and self-care time every morning before you get into your day. This way, you boost yourself up to Flourish Mode right away!

It doesn’t need to be fancy or take much time, but it should feel delicious, refreshing, grounding and calming.

Then you move into the rest of your day as your best self. This makes a massive difference in productivity, interactions, decisions, outcomes, creativity and MORE!

One activity you can try to boost your Flourish Level is my free Mini Sophrology Session with video and PDF. You’ll be guided through a short series of exercises that are intended to release tension and calm the mind. Sound good? Click the link below to get your copy!