Research Note 2 - Conditions for Flourishing -Why Conversations?

Conditions for Flourishing After Menopause

I chose conversations because I wanted to hear how women themselves make sense of life after menopause, in their own language and on their own terms.

A questionnaire can tell us what people select from the options we give them. A conversation can reveal what we did not know to ask.

It allows space for contradiction, memory, hesitation, humour, uncertainty and the unexpected connections that emerge when someone has time to reflect on her own experience.

I am particularly interested in the conditions surrounding flourishing, and those conditions are rarely simple. Health, relationships, money, work, identity, place, culture, purpose and belonging can all intersect in ways that are difficult to separate.

The conversations give women room to tell the story as they understand it, rather than fitting their lives immediately into a predetermined framework.

And perhaps most importantly, they allow the research to remain genuinely open to being changed by what I hear.