Flourishing Symposium 2022

An online symposium to meet and share ideas across disciplines and hierarchies.

It was a privilege to host our third flourishing symposium with Dr Rofique Ali. We explored flourishing as something interpersonal and relational, involving connection with others and ourselves recognising our humanity, vulnerability and brokeness and engaging with compassion and care for self and others.

Flourishing invites a more ecological approach to our inner lives than perhaps resilience (often conceptualised as toughing it out alone or springing back from our challenges... ). The metaphor of the tree allows us to think of the soil on which we have grown, the season that we are going through or the weather that we are facing.

We experienced voices from the frontline - patient, student and GP, expressed through image and poetry.

We were so grateful to hear from Dr Sarah Willen from the University of Connecticut, Associate Professor of Anthropology, taking a critical view on flourishing. Sarah asks, how can we promote human flourishing without considering structure and power, or listening to those whose opportunities to flourish have been limited?

Click here for resources from the symposium.

Voices from the frontline - Patient voice

Natasha Duggan

Uncertainty again, no forward planning, it’s just here and now. I’ve noticed how time goes slower. My doing art helps create another space, where I feel safe, flow and experience joyful happenings.

Voices from the frontline - Student voice

by Harriet Coleman

This image here was the first dip of my toe into creative enquiry. I created the piece alongside my Student Selected Component, exploring how we can flourish at a medical school. For me, I just found the calmness of painting, after a long day of writing, very therapeutic. Each day I worked on the project I painted a different flower. I tied the image together by adding the words which emerged most commonly and resonated most strongly from my work. I love that both this image and an 8000 word essay are ways to explore such an important topic. They tell the same story but in such different ways.

Voices from the frontline - GP voice

Take Care by Dr Shona Urquhart

"Take care of yourself, doctor"

Words spoken in a moment of

Doorhandle hesitation

The door closes behind you

Your comment suspended in the silence

A platitude perhaps or

Kind words, well meant

"But, I take care of you"

My inner voice protests

It's my job and I strive to

Do it well and give my all

For you

You have unburdened yourself

In this safe place

Showed vulnerability

Whilst I hide mine

How can I go on

Caring and caring and caring?

Sometimes, my narrow shoulders,

Stiff from bearing burdens, sag

And I flounder under the

Weight of failure

Self-critical, with nothing left

To give

But, today, I pause

Receive your gift of self-compassion

Allow myself to

Be human

"Thank you"

I say to the empty room

"I will"

Map of our conversations by Camille Aubry

Some quotes:

Within harmful cultures, self-care becomes a form of activism
Rebecca Solnit; Hope in the Dark, talks about the importance of hope as a form of energy and intention that affects change. She says that change comes from the edges, not the centre. From people not necessarily from Govt.
Joy doesn't betray but sustains activism. And when you face a politics that aspires to make you fearful, alienated and isolated, joy is a fine act of insurrection.” ― Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark
I think that bringing the arts into a a culture with a very medical model is also activism...I remember starting a poetry board in a very medical model based oncology department to start challenging that culture in a gentle way...it was interesting to see how it started to change the conversations we had.
So crucial (looking at SDH, class, race and privilege) especially as we have lots of initiatives like widening participation to medicine but without necessarily understanding what it means for those students (who end up as colleagues) often being othered and not feeling like they belong.
For anyone feeling stressed, exhausted or overwhelmed, the worst thing can be to give them a list of wellbeing advice. It will just feel like another list of oughts and shoulds and has the potential to create more stress

Resources, poetry, images shared

https://www.pandemicjournalingproject.org/archive/featured Dr Sarah Willen and team