What is a Flourishing Life?

This blog is the beginning of a series of reflections as well as proven ways from the research in positive psychology to create a flourishing life for yourself. I am a positive psychology coach who studies what enables human beings to thrive and I like to pass that information along to others like you. This is an exciting field that studies what is right with us instead of what is wrong with us. It does not ignore the negative emotions that exist but puts them into a balanced big picture. I also pull from the literature in coaching as well as my own personal learning and my experience as a coach with my clients. So, let's begin.

What would a flourishing life look like for you? That is the most important question you can answer. From there, you can build an optimal way of living based in what is important to you as well as what we have learned from the research. The first thing you might want to do is to write a paragraph or a page describing what your flourishing life looks like.

I recently conducted a workshop where I had my participants come with a written paragraph or page about what a flourishing life would look like for them. What I noticed was that all participants described their flourishing life in words of feeling states. Some of the words used were: warm & cozy, connected, freedom, bountiful, serenity, good circle of friends, security, harmony. The other way it has been described is in describing 'a perfect day', describing what you do, think and feel from the beginning to the end of one day, if it were perfect. And yet another way to describe it might be to describe the different elements of your life such as financial, career, social, family, leisure and so on.

So, what would a flourishing life look like for you?

Warmly, Johanna