FLOURISH this week ☀🌱🌺
Don’t languish!
Recently I listened to a podcast where a sociologist spoke about his research and a book he had written about “languishing.”
In truth, the podcast itself wasn’t actually very good, which is why I’m not recommending it to you 😂 But the basic idea, I thought, was compelling.
Corey Keyes, author of “Languishing: How to Feel Alive Again in a World That Wears Us Down,” defines languishing as a state of “emptiness and stagnation” and a “dissatisfaction, lack of engagement, and apathy.”
According to Keyes, languishing isn’t just when you’re feeling a little “blah.”
Nor is it simply “being lazy”– languishing, he says, does not feel good. There are mental and social components to this experience which cuts us off from our innate desire to flourish.
“To languish is not only to have lost a sense of interest in life or you’re not feeling happy or satisfied, but along with that, at least six or more things are missing in your life, like a sense of purpose, a sense that you’re growing as a person, a sense of self-acceptance . . . a sense that you are making contributions or you will make a contribution to the world or your community, a sense of belonging to a community, a sense of coherence, which is that you can make sense of what’s going on in the world around you. Languishing is defined as missing these crucial elements in your life and the absence of funcitoning well.”
Flourishing is said to be the opposite of languishing 🌺
I found these words and concepts quite vivid, and I hope you’ll take some inspiration from them too. I believe that we are all meant to flourish, and that life happens for us, giving us the necessary ingredients, and challenges, to help us grow.
And of course from my perspective there is a clear tie-in with the functioning of the spine and nervous system. Traumas and stresses, and our habitual fight-or-flight reaction to them, diminish our physiological and neurological ability to flourish. Pain, disconnection, and indeed “languishing” become wired into our nervous systems the more we experience them.
This week, when you’re with me at New Day for your care, as well as throughout the week in your work, family, recreation, and social life, consider that flourishing is not just an ideal, but your optimal and natural state.
And I look forward to helping you increase your capacity for flourishing at your appointment with me this week 💖☀️🏡✨🌀
