Archives for November 2019

A quick introduction to flourishing for the flourish rebel.

The science of positive psychology suggests that flourishing is optimal human functioning that allows one to more than just survive, but to thrive, flourish and continually improve their own and others quality of life, happiness, and ultimately well-being.

The generally accepted positive psychology model to enable flourishing in life is to focus on positivity, engagement, relationships, meaning and achievement. The acronym “PERMA” is tossed around as a moniker for flourishing. Typically, but not always PERMA is extended by adding Vitality / Health as another focus area resulting in PERMA-V or PERMA-H or even PERMA+.

The PERMA-V model is typically applied at the individual level, but can really be applied to all contexts (levels) including individual, household / group / team, business, community, town/city, region, nation, the world, and even the planet. For all levels you could consider flourishing as optimal functioning. The definition is simplistic, and optimal functioning needs to be defined in more detail for each level. More on that at another time.

Flourishing is a concept that has its origins in other disciplines – economics, organizational management and design, sociology, philosophy and other multi-disciplinary based areas of interest – government, human rights and sustainability as examples. Ultimately, they are all interested in how we flourish, and how flourishing ultimately improves the well-being for all. Over time many areas where flourishing has slowly entered into the discourse of the area of interest have come to realize that what they are truly concerned with is flourishing in some context. You can currently (late 2019) see this now in the sustainability area. The sustainability field is just starting to realize that they need to “get beyond sustainability” to flourishing. This recent trend, is what led to the creation of the Flourish Rebel!

The Flourish Rebel applies the PERMA-V model and approaches (typically called interventions) to focus on flourishing for all aspects of life, work, community, the world and the planet.

The Flourish Rebel looks at how anyone or any entity can use PERMA-V and their unique set of strengths, talents and skills to move from challenges, risks and opportunities, to develop or use capabilities that support improved functioning and experiences that creates real value for oneself, others, communities, organizations, regions and the planet that ultimately enables flourishing and improved well-being.