Flourishing - A New Construct For Well-Being
A framework for how to think about well-being
Welcome to the 8 new people that have joined A&T since last Sunday!
First off I wanted to give a shout out to Rino, Drew, and Gianmarco who helped connect the most new subscribers to Alive & Thriving! I’ll be reaching out to you three with a copy of my favorite book :) Thank you for your support!
As a result of all the support I’m going to be asking for your support in connecting A&T to people that would enjoy it again this week! Here is the rundown of what I’m hoping to accomplish and what A&T will be giving out:
Goal - Reach 100 subscribers by end of year (currently at 73)
Most Connections Wins A Copy of My Favorite Book - The 3 subscribers that help connect the most people to A&T this week will get a copy of my favorite book.
How To Win - To win, please shoot an email to anspach.alvaro@gmail.com with whoever you referred and I will reach out next week directly if you won!
Martin Seligman & Positive Psychology
The very good news is there is quite a number of internal circumstances […] under your voluntary control. If you decide to change them (and be warned that none of these changes come without real effort), your level of happiness is likely to increase lastingly. - Seligman
The idea of flourishing is an excellent representation of what living well looks like and gives us clues for how to flourish ourselves.
Before diving into how to think about flourishing we need to understand a bit more about Martin Seligman and positive psychology. Martin is the father of positive psychology - a movement that was born out of a desire to analyze the human mind through the lens of wholeness or well-being as opposed to analyzing it through the lens of pathology. For the better part of psychology's history the science was mainly focused on the study of disease and illness.
The Birth of Positive Psychology
Prior to the launch of positive psychology, Martin Seligman had been researching helplessness in animals and depression in human beings for quite some time. It was during this time, after feeling down himself, that Martin had the idea to use psychology to study human well-being. The idea was formed as a result of an observation his young daughter made when they were weeding the garden together.
She said to him, “If I can stop whining, you can stop being such a grouch.” This simple exchange was the catalyst to launching positive psychology as it prompted Martin to ask - can we help the average human understand and improve their well-being? (i.e. be less grouchy).
Study Flourishing, Not Pathology
He wondered - what if psychology focused on well-being instead of unhappiness, on strengths instead of weaknesses, on success instead of failure. His vision was to use the scientific study of the human mind and human behavior to be of use, not just to those that suffered from mental illness, but to ordinary human beings that simply wanted to live and feel better day to day.
In short, Martin wanted a framework that would help people thrive, was evidence based, and practical to apply. As you can imagine, this kind of work resonated deeply with me when I came across it.
The study of well-being and human flourishing has been around for thousands of years, dating back to sages such as Aristotle, Jesus, and the Stoics. However, Martin was the first person to apply rigorous scientific study to this field.
Over the last 20 years positive psychology has flourished (no pun intended) and lent more credence to the study of human well-being. What Martin Seligman and the positive psychology movement have done has not only advanced our learnings, but also provided mountains of evidence for how we can train our mental wellness and fitness over time.
Without further ado, I'd like to dive into Martin Seligman's framework for well-being or as he terms it "Flourishing".
What Is Flourishing
“Mental health is much more than the absence of mental illness.”
Flourishing is the state of optimal well-being as defined by positive psychology. It is "when people experience positive emotions, positive psychological functioning and positive social functioning, most of the time"
I love this word to describe optimal well-being. It's so descriptive and it feels like the right picture to paint.
According to Corey Keyes, one of the foremost experts on positive psychology, only 18.1% of Americans are actually flourishing. The majority of Americans can be classified as mentally unhealthy (depressed) or not flourishing (moderately mentally healthy). source. Roughly 20% of the population falls into the first bucket of mental illness and 60% into the second bucket of moderate mental wellness.
I get excited about the idea of how can we shift more of that 60% that are in the moderate category into the flourishing bucket. In the next section I explore what moving into that bucket looks like in practice and why you should care.
The general takeaway though is that flourishing, for me, is worth striving for as it implies growth, coming into ones-self, and an influx of energy from exercising our ability to live life at our fullest. The first time I heard this word as a descriptor of optimal well-being it felt right and I wanted to understand what were the underlying components of this idea.
The PERMA Model
[Positive Psychology] takes you through the countryside of pleasure and gratification, up into the high country of strength and virtue, and finally to the peaks of lasting fulfillment: meaning and purpose (Seligman 2002, p. 61).
The PERMA model is a framework for how to think about human flourishing. PERMA stands for:
Positive Emotion - The extent to which you feel good and how often you feel good in your day to day
Engagement - Involved in things that draw and build upon your interests. This shows up as having things in your life that you are so absorbed in that you lose track of time. These are the kinds of things you would do for their own sake vs. for the outcome.
Relationships - The extent to which we feel connected to other people in our lives.
Meaning - The extent to which you feel you have a purpose or reason for being
Achievement - The pursuit of success and mastery. This shows up as the extent to which you have accomplishments, have met goals, or developed mastery in some area that you are proud of and content with.
To date this model, in my opinion, is the most complete vision I've ever seen of well-being. For some reason it does not include physical activity and nutrition which I think is key but it is still comprehensive. It's also cool because it breaks down wellness into concrete and discrete areas of your life, which make it easier to understand where one may might not be completely satisfied.
When I first came across the PERMA model I realized pretty quickly that I had gaps across the board:
Positive Emotion - At the time I was feeling burnt out, anxious, stressed, and irritable.
Engagement - I was not doing work that engaged me to the full extent of my capabilities
Relationships - I was disconnected from many of my friends and family. Additionally, I had a tendency to try to solve everyone's problems, which did not always lead to great chats.
Meaning - This was the biggest hole in my wellbeing. This idea of feeling like I was being called to do something. At the time, I felt like I did not have a north star.
Achievement - I felt pretty good here, but I was getting restless and needed to set some new targets.
Pretty big gaps! Before diving into how I've approached filling them, let me add some color as to how these were chosen as the components of Flourishing. Each of the five PERMA elements were selected according to three criteria:
It contributes to well-being.
It is pursued for its own sake.
It is defined and measured independently of the other elements.
Additionally, psychologists have experimentally shown that each of the five components materially correlates with well-being and happiness.
How To Gauge Where You Stand
The first question that came to mind when I came across this was how do I see where I fall on this scale of flourishing. Conveniently, there is an assessment called the PERMA profiler which attempts to quantify where you fall across all aspects of the PERMA model.
If you like numbers and enjoy quantifying your health, the PERMA profiler is a great way to do a few things:
Baseline - Establish a baseline for how you feel on each area of the PERMA framework.
Identify Gaps - Point out areas where you may be languishing or could improve
Gauge Efficacy - Assess whether actions you've taken have measurably improved your well-being
Below are my results from a few months ago and my results from last week.
Health - 33% improvement
Dec. 2020 - 9.33
April. 2020 - 7
Positive Emotion - 15% improvement
Dec. 2020 - 8
April. 2020 - 7
Engagement - 53% improvement
Dec. 2020 - 7.67
April. 2020 - 5
Relationships - 25% improvement
Dec. 2020 - 10
April. 2020 - 8
Meaning - 40% improvement
Dec. 2020 - 7
April. 2020 - 5
Achievement -14% improvement
Dec. 2020 - 8
April. 2020 - 7
My scores are pretty solid today but where I feel like I'm not at my best are in "meaning" and "engagement". When I read my results, the fact that I score lower in those two areas rings true to me. When I first took this test and got a baseline, my question was what do I do with this information?
Below I dive into how I thought about it and what actions led to those improvements.
Taking Stock and Getting Specific
“How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most [people] at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.” —William James
A good way to review the PERMA profile is to think about what is causing you to feel that way. My approach here was to write down whatever came to mind.
Below is a condensed version of my reflections:
Health - I was not physically and nutritionally where I wanted to be personally.
Running and doing pushups was hard. Could not play at full capacity in a game of basketball.
Drank too often for what I wanted. Probably like 3 to 4 times per week.
My diet was at like 50% plant/whole foods based and the rest of the time was a lot of snacking and less than ideal foods.
Positive Emotion - Did not feel great as often as I liked. Felt burnt out and irritable.
Engagement - Did not enjoy the work I was doing and side projects I was spending time on.
Side projects were done to do something vs. because it was meaningful or interesting
Relationships - I took some time and reflected on what was not working in my relationships and where I felt less than excited. Here is what I came up with
Did not have regular time for Isabella and I to connect
Did not talk to my friends as much as I wanted/did not know enough about what was going on with them
Had lots of conversations that did not feel satisfying. Did not feel like a source of warmth, love, and support for my friends and loved ones
Did not talk to my parents as much as I wanted to
Did not go out with my friends as much as I wanted to
Meaning - Struggled with the question of what is my purpose, what am I moving towards in life?
Worked for success not for meaning
Felt unmotivated because I was not clear in a direction
Achievement - Felt pretty good here but knew there was more to aspire to.
I was not clear on what target would bring me satisfaction and would be fun to pursue simply for the sake of pursuing it.
Putting It Into Action
As a result of these reflections, I was able to devise new habits to improve my overall well-being.
Below I cover some of them to give you a glimpse of what putting my learnings into action looked like:
Health - Put new health habits into place
Drink once per week or less (except when on holiday, sending cheers from Miami!)
Eat plant based and vegan for at least 12/16 meals
Exercise 5 times per week, get outside the other 2 times
Positive Emotion - Introduced habits that improve positive emotion
Cold shower
Meditation
Journaling
Regular coaching + therapy
Engagement - Mapped out my Ikigai and got clear on what would engage me
Meeting with studios and working on projects
Alive & Thriving
Trying to understand how to shift people from feeling moderately well mentally to flourishing
Freestyling & basketball
Relationships - Found ways to increase connection and improve how I showed up in relationships
Weekly date night with Isabella & monthly money date
Visited my brother for 3 weeks
Talk with at least two friends weekly and pick up random calls from my friends more often
Talk to my parents a couple of times per week
Took a relational intelligence course and am being less of a savage in my conversations
Do something with one of my friends every other week
Meaning - Figured out what moves the needle for me personally and got more definition around meaning.
Building a strong family
Be a source of warmth, love, and support for my friends and loved ones
Democratize access to health & well-being
Learn something new daily, have new adventures regularly, and pick up new skills yearly
Achievement - Have set a bunch of random goals for fun
Created a video resume app for restaurants and tested with 15 locations
Launched Alive & Thriving
Piloted mental fitness coaching/therapy session for founders
Met with 30+ studios
Actively meet with health & wellness founders that are raising $
Hired a financial planner and created a financial plan
When In Doubt, Reflect On PERMA
At the end of the day this is a framework for how to think about your well-being. If you're not feeling like you're at 100% energy and capacity (which I doubt anyone is operating at this level all the time) PERMA is a useful model for triangulating what might deserve your focus.
I personally shied away from this topic of mental wellness because it has been associated with illness for a long time - i.e. you’re depressed, have debilitating anxiety, etc. Those problems are important but they don’t resonate with the 60% of people that fall into the moderately well bucket. The more I dig into this topic though, the more I am inspired by the potential of the science to move people from the 60% bucket of moderately well into the 20% that are flourishing.
To date the PERMA framework has been the most useful approach to think about well-being that I have come across and I hope it is useful for you!
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To Living Well,
Alvaro
Weekly Live Well Recs
Read of the week 📖: Flourish by Martin Seligman
Product(s) of the week 🍯: Casper Glow Light - A beautifully designed light that helps you fall asleep and gently wakes you up. Just got this for Channukah/Xmas :)