Episode #5: Pathways to Global Flourishing

Dr David Johnson is Reader in Comparative and International Education and Fellow of St Antony’s College at the University of Oxford. He convenes Oxford’s Centre for Comparative and International Education and recently held the position of Chen Yiden Global Visiting Fellow at Harvard.

Dr. Matthew T. Lee is Director of Empirical Research at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, where he also leads the Program’s Community of Practice. He is also a Distinguished Visiting Scholar of Health, Flourishing, and Positive Psychology at Stony Brook University’s Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics.

Key Takeaways from this episode are:

• Multidimensional nature of flourishing, being inter-systemic, involving multiple systems: connections between flourishing and (i) the natural environment; (ii) justice; (iii) religion & spirituality; (iv) suffering; (v) contentedness; (vi) belonging; (vii) service to others; (viii) the narrative you tell of your life; (vi) empathy; (x) love; (xi) secureness in who we are; (xi) inner and outer harmony
• Flourishing as a process of growth and becoming
• Pathways to flourishing, globally
• The metaphor of discovering greater depth in oneself as a better metaphor for flourishing than growth. Connection with this and contentedness.
• Matt and David’s work worldwide: David’s work in various nations, including Bhutan; Matt’s work with the Global Flourishing Study
• The limits of physical and emotional load for human beings, in relation to flourishing (examples of low well-being for medical students and professionals in the US, and teachers)
• Matt on the role of love in flourishing: ‘warm’ and ‘cold’ relationships