The word flourishing, from the Latin “to grow” and French “to bloom,” brings to mind an overflowing cornucopia. That would be the ideal life to strive for—one filled with nourishing food, warm, loving relationships, connection to community, nurturing environments, happiness, meaning, and purpose.

The concept originated as far back as Aristotle’s “eudaemonia”—eu: good health, and daemon: true self, which encompasses physical, mental, and social well-being. Generally, flourishing includes meaning and purpose, mental and physical health, happiness and life satisfaction, close social relationships, character and virtue, and financial and material stability.

One can think of health as a continuum from lack of illness to physical health to emotional well-being to social well-being to flourishing. Each step is a signpost on the road to flourishing. Each is a state of being, not a way to get there.

So how does one get there? What are the actions one needs to take to move along this road?

Some of the elements that contribute to flourishing are also core areas of integrative health. The Andrew Weill Center for Integrative Medicine has defined seven domains of integrative health: sleep, resilience, environment, movement, relationships, spirituality, and nutrition.

Of those, relationships and spirituality clearly fall within the bounds of flourishing. Others—sleep, movement, nutrition—are necessary for physical and physiological health, without which one cannot flourish.

An adequate environment is needed to support both physical health (through, for example, clean air) and emotional well-being (through green environments). Resilience—how quickly one bounces back from any stressor—can be viewed as another signpost on the way to flourishing, sitting between social well-being and flourishing. Intentionally engaging in these core areas provides doable actions that help you get to flourishing.

Researcher Tyler VanderWeele proposed........

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