Surviving or thriving? Society Co-Vice Chair Erin Sanchez explores some surprising ideas about what it means to thrive and experience mental health.
Let’s be honest. It’s been a tough year. Lockdowns, exponentially increasing work intensity or limited opportunities for work, difficult financial decisions, and physical distance from loved ones have been some of the challenges. But perhaps the freedom from the daily commute, an unexpected opportunity to slow down, and a discovery of totally new ways of being in touch were also a part of this year. Personally, this year I got to see our four children grow (physically and emotionally), I discovered a beautiful place to walk near my home, I felt hugely engaged in my work to help people, and I reflected, a lot, on what was most important in my life. However, I also struggled with significant burnout, anxiety and depression. Thus, I find myself asking, did I survive or did I thrive this year? Thriving can be defined as ‘the joint experience of development and success, which can be realised through effective holistic functioning and observed through the experience of a high-level of well-being and a perceived high-level of performance.’ (Brown, Arnold, Fletcher, & Standage, 2017, p175) So, to thrive, we need to have a chance to grow and experience accomplishment. A real life example of this might be learning a new skill, such as a language, and having success putting it into action by being able to have a conversation with someone. We also need to be holistically functioning, which means to experience high levels of physical, 8
psychological and social well-being and high levels of perceived ability to execute tasks and achieve. Here an example could be a situation where we are excelling in our work and seeing our students developing, we have good close friendships, we eat well, sleep well and feel good about ourselves. By this definition, I certainly did not thrive this year. However, growing understanding of thriving suggests that it can follow on from experience of an adverse event (Brown, Arnold, Fletcher, and Standage, 2017). In this case, thriving would be considered the ability to experience a negative event, and to not only return to functioning (resilience), but also to see enhancements in function. Further, thriving usually follows something called ‘challenge appraisal’, where challenge is viewed as relevant to personal goals and the ability to cope with it seems feasible given the resources available. Having a sense of autonomy, belongness and competence (also called the three basic psychological needs) can support thriving in adversity. (Brown, Sarkar, & Howells, 2020) This presents an interesting viewpoint – looking back on last year, the darkest moments were ones where I felt completely out of my depth and without the resources I needed, and the best moments weren’t always they easiest ones, but the ones where I was challenged in a way that felt important and I had support to keep going. I can also recognise that in the best times, I felt that I had been able to choose how I approached the challenge (autonomy), that I felt a part of a group that valued me as I addressed
REFERENCE S Brown, D J, Arnold, R, Fletcher, D, & Standage, M (2017). Human thriving. European Psychologist. Brown, D J, Sarkar, M, & Howells, K (2020). Growth, resilience, and thriving: a jangle fallacy? In: Routledge. Keyes, C L (2014). Mental health as a complete state: How the salutogenic perspective completes the picture. Bridging occupational, organizational and public health, p179–192.
Dance | Issue 492
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