Alarmed by the statistics related to the overall health and well-being in our country, specifically with regards to mental and physical well-being, it’s a natural process for me to begin pondering the issue and wondering what preventative strategies I can implement in my own life to avoid the journey down an unhealthy path. Attempting to take an objective look at the habits and behaviors from a personal perspective, if I’m willing to take on the difficult task of self-reflection, I can share examples of when I hit different points on the flourishing to failure continuum. If I choose to view these examples through the lens of the Enneagram, a system of personality typing that describes how we view and interpret our world, then I am able to identify moments when I am a Flourishing Five and on the healthy end of the continuum, compared to those times when I tend to resemble a Floundering Five and appear off-balanced and engage in unhealthy behaviors.
This pilgrimage into the Habits of a Flourishing Life has led down interesting paths including wrestling with finding the balance between cultivating healthy behaviors (what I am in control of) and allowing God to use my unique design (what I must fully surrender) to live a life full of purpose and meaning. If I desire to hear the words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant,” at the end of my limited time on this earth, then I am responsible for how I manage my well-being so that I can best fulfill His purposes for me while I am here. Therefore, a great deal of the burden to cultivate life satisfaction and well-being falls upon my shoulders to establish healthy habits and behaviors which allow me to transform, with God’s help, from a Floundering Five to a Flourishing Five.
In her book The Journey Toward Wholeness, Suzanne Stabile shares, “Transformation is a lifetime process, a process of letting go and staying with the inner work. I feel very fortunate to have found the Enneagram as a companion on this journey toward wholeness.” What Stabile offers for readers is a look into developing habits, adding tools to our toolbox, that allow the transformation process to occur. Using the Enneagram, Stabile proposes strategies which will allow us to be “more at peace in facing stress as we learn to do the inner work of managing our dominant Center of Intelligence.” For example, if I truly desire to be a Flourishing Five (the Enneagram has three triads related to thinking, doing, and feeling), then it’s important to understand the number I move to when I’m stressed.
To be a Flourishing Five, a member of the thinking triad, my health is dependent on what I think about how and what I see. Because I come from a place that focuses on scarcity, it is vital that during my spiritual practices that I regularly remind myself that God is a provider. “When Fives focus on things that are diminishing—energy, money, independence, options, privacy, and other realities that are so very personal—they miss what they have…But when they are able to allow for the ebb and flow of their resources as part of the rhythm of life, they often find themselves feeling sufficiently qualified to follow their hearts. In those moments they are prepared to speak up or lead in matters of personal belief, and they are generous with their knowledge.” A Flourishing Five will “begin to use feeling and doing along with thinking, each for their intended purpose, they will notice differences almost immediately. They will have richer and more life-giving relationships and won’t be as tired or as low in energy because they are not thinking their feelings or thinking about doing but then not doing.”
Understanding the vital role we play in managing our own health and well-being, such as doing the inner work to cultivate the Habits of a Flourishing Life, to be a Flourishing [insert your number here], allows us the freedom to live a life of purpose and meaning in all areas—personal, professional, and spiritual. So, I encourage you to consider the Enneagram or other assessment tools, that allow you to begin the transformation process to cultivating a flourishing life. Please feel free to share in the comments below how God is revealing to you the role you play in nourishing yourself to a place of positive health and well-being.
Reference:
Stabile, S. (2021). The journey toward wholeness: Enneagram wisdom for stress, balance, and transformation. [Kindle version]. IVP Books.
Flourishing @ Life 
I thought this was a very good article in helping me learn more about my body. Taking care of ourselves is a full-time job and by using the materials the Lord has given us, it makes the task easier.
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The reflection of one’s life is a necessary one, especially for enneagram fives. It is good for all people to recognize their tendencies when they are flourishing or need space to work on themselves. An important realization for anyone is that the growth and stress lines are not only positive or only negative. The growth line is to direct you towards who you most likely become when you are open, free, and at peace. When looking at it directly, it sounds like the best option. However, it is the space where you are most vulnerable and are destined to eventually fall back to stress. Similarly, a movement to stress is not only difficult; it is a place you go when in stress to heal. Therefore, the line of stress resembles a healthy, vital part of life. Many sources will give positve/negative connotations to the lines that are not completely justifiable. Suzanne Stabile is a generally good source for the basic, emotional navigation of the enneagram. However, if you are to look further into the details, psychological reasoning, and depth of the enneagram, I would recommend Beatrice Chesnut’s book “The Complete Enneagram.” It also delves into subtypes and more useful details I think you would find interesting. Great article with good thought flows!
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Everyone wants to live a flourishing life, one that they are happy with living. Not many people realize how much of a personal responsibility creating a healthy and flourishing life is. It was very interesting to see how the enneagram can be used to identify habits that individuals have when they are stressed versus when they are in their healthiest state. While I am not an enneagram 5, this blog post made me begin to think about what habits I have when I get stressed that cause me to “flounder” versus the habits that allow me to “flourish.” When we lean into our healthy habits, we are better suited to fulfill the plans that God has for us. If we are not living a healthy life that allows us to flourish, it is much harder to follow God’s specific plan for our lives to glorify His name. This was a very good article that made me think about what tools I can use to create a flourishing lifestyle that best prepares me for the work God wants to do in my life.
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I struggled a lot last semester being diagnosed with Celiac’s because I completely had to learn a whole new lifestyle. I was constantly getting cross contaminated which weakened my immune system. I developed pneumonia and couldn’t get rid of it for a month. It took a serious toll on my mental health. However, during Christmas break, I took time to focus on my mental health and my physical health began to flourish. I believe this is such a true reality many people face. I believe it is important to realize the habits we turn to when stressed and how it deeply affects us. This post made me realize the key is to trust God’s plan.
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I think that it is really important to realize what a big impact you have on your own mental health and well-being. Most of the time how we react to a problem has a greater impact on our health than the problem itself. Our mental health also has an impact on our physical health and the physical on the mental health. Everyone wants to live a flourishing life, however they do not realize that they have to take responsibility in order to achieve that. The way to a flourishing life is an ongoing journey, but I believe that we have to trust in God and the progress. You need to have trust, but you have to put in the work by yourself.
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