To Flourish or Not To Flourish...?
Considering what contributes to our sense of well-being
[Foreword: I often find myself writing as a way of expressing lament or loss in this time of governmental overreach, but it's not my sense that many who will read this need help with the lament part! Maybe this is me doing a kind of regular course-correction for the blog, but I'm choosing to focus — for myself and for you — on more hopeful kinds of reflections with a longer-term scope. It's so easy to get caught up in the transgressions of the moment, to feel a frustrating sense of powerlessness against a rising tide of human rights and other abuses. Instead, though, I'm going to take the next few posts to share thoughts about possibilities for larger conversations we might have around what it means for humans to flourish, and how such conversations could find common and more stable ground; the kinds of places we need to be able to stand strong against cynicism, hatred, and pettiness.]
The word still feels a bit fancy when I say it, to be honest — flourish. As though it needs to be spoken with kind of verbal flourish 😅. It's not a word I have used very much in my life, but as I've become more involved with a group I mentioned recently (The S1 Project), I have become increasingly interested in how we — individually and collectively — understand what it means to have/live a good life; to flourish. And lately, I've also wondered a lot more often about what role we might reasonably expect our society/government to play in the promotion of opportunities to flourish.
A shared concept of well-being/flourishing might be a place to find common ground with political adversaries and others with whom we sense only disagreement. (Yes, I still hold out hope of the possibility for conversation with at least some of those who support the current administration). A few months ago I was introduced to the work of the Harvard University Human Flourishing Project, which has defined five components (or “domains”) that contribute to a holistic definition of human flourishing:
Happiness and life satisfaction
Mental and physical health
Meaning and purpose
Character and virtue
Close social relationships
Financial and material stability
In the course of an S1 Project board meeting last Saturday, I decided that I'd spend my next few posts unpacking these and considering a) in what ways our well-being may feel besieged at present, and b) some questions to help me (and you?) “keep an eye on the ball” (not allow bad news/events to distract us from the good in our lives and in the world).
For now I'm inviting you to consider what you see as necessary conditions for the ideal human life. When your life has been at its best (however you define or measure it), what were you experiencing in those six domains and what conditions (external and internal) helped make it possible? To what extent did circumstances in the larger society around you play a role? (In other words, how dependent was your experience of well-being on the government or other societal institutions?)
Although I refuse to exempt government for a responsibility to support a society that seeks well-being for the greatest possible number of its citizens, I want to suggest — or at least pose the possibility — that whether or not we consider ourselves to be flourishing is at least partly dependent on the extent to which we are willing to say that we are. Or to put it another way, while it might be nice to have more resources in one or more of the six domains, our well-being is tied to a sense that what we have is enough. If you have never seen yourself as flourishing, what has held you back? If you revisited your life now and determined that at one point you were flourishing, how might that affect your understanding about what is possible today or in the future? What would it be like to claim your current circumstances — whatever they are — as adequate to say that you have well-being?
As long as we have a sense of scarcity in any area of our lives, well-being will remain just out of reach.
And if it truly is out of reach in some fashion — if one or more of the domains that contribute to it are (at least seemingly) permanently diminished (eg. chronic physical health issues, financial stability, etc.), how might we reassess and re-balance ourselves by drawing more on some of the other domains? (It's either that or we have to accept that with even one domain at a shortage of resources we can never again consider ourselves to be flourishing…).
A few additional questions to consider:
What does it mean to live a good life?
In what ways might we be flourishing, and in what ways not so much?
What is our opportunity/responsibility to promote flourishing for others?
What does our government owe us when it comes to seeking to live a good life?
Below you can find the fairly short list of questions that the Human Flourishing Project uses to assess well-being. I'd encourage you to consider those for yourself. (Rate each one on a scale of 1-10)
Domain 1: Happiness and Life Satisfaction.
1. Overall, how satisfied are you with life as a whole these days?
0=Not Satisfied at All, 10=Completely Satisfied
2. In general, how happy or unhappy do you usually feel?
0=Extremely Unhappy, 10=Extremely Happy
Domain 2: Mental and Physical Health.
3. In general, how would you rate your physical health?
0=Poor, 10=Excellent
4. How would you rate your overall mental health?
0=Poor, 10=Excellent
Domain 3: Meaning and Purpose.
5. Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?0=Not at All Worthwhile, 10=Completely Worthwhile
6. I understand my purpose in life.
0=Strongly Disagree, 10=Strongly Agree
Domain 4: Character and Virtue.
7. I always act to promote good in all circumstances, even in difficult and challenging situations.
0=Not True of Me, 10=Completely True of Me
8. I am always able to give up some happiness now for greater happiness later.
0=Not True of Me, 10=Completely True of Me
Domain 5: Close Social Relationships.
9. I am content with my friendships and relationships.
0=Strongly Disagree, 10=Strongly Agree
10. My relationships are as satisfying as I would want them to be.
0=Strongly Disagree, 10=Strongly Agree
Domain 6: Financial and Material Stability.
11. How often do you worry about being able to meet normal monthly living expenses?0=Worry All of the Time, 10=Do Not Ever Worry
12. How often do you worry about safety, food, or housing?
0=Worry All of the Time, 10=Do Not Ever Worry
Peace, Dana