Ideas on Mental Health & Meaning
You Don’t Need a New Life. You May Need a New Map.
Last week, I wrote about something I call The Meaning Deficit—that experience of having a life filled with activity, responsibilities, and perhaps even success, yet still feeling that something important is missing. We can become so busy managing our lives that we...
The Meaning Deficit: When Life Is Full, but Something Is Missing
Have you ever reached the end of a particularly busy day, looked back at everything you accomplished, and wondered, “But what did any of it really mean?” You answered the emails. Attended the meetings. Took care of the responsibilities. Checked the boxes. By most...
Two Roles, One Set of Values
I've been thinking about this all week. You may have already read about a new role I have accepted. What a career in addiction treatment, Logotherapy, and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy has taught me about prevention, recovery, and meaningful living. I recently...
You Don’t Have to Turn Everything Into a Lesson
Somewhere along the way, we seem to have developed the expectation that every difficult experience should teach us something. A relationship ends, and we're encouraged to look for the lesson. We lose a job, experience a disappointment, struggle with our health, or...
What Happens When Men Take Off Their Armor
I recently returned from a men's retreat at southern Colorado's Joyful Journey's Retreat Center with a group of men I've come to know through Men's Peer Groups. I've been part of a Men's Peer Group for a couple of years now, and I've written before about the...
Ancient Self-Knowledge and Human Freedom in the Age of the Algorithm
Whew... what a week. I'm sorry I didn't get this post out yesterday, like I usually do. I've been away in Colorado for a retreat with my Men's Peer Group - https://menspeergroups.com/ The past few days have been inspiring, emotional, motivational, confrontational,...
Maybe Meaning is Still Contagious – World Congress 2026
I just got back from the 25th Jubilee World Congress of Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy in Chicago—four days of international scholarship, conversation, and fellowship centered around the ideas of Logotherapy and Existential Analysis. It was amazing. It was also one of...
Not Every Thought Deserves Your Attention
I've been reading a book recently called Don't Believe Everything You Think by Joseph Nguyen, and the title alone contains some pretty good psychological advice. We tend to give our thoughts tremendous authority. What if something goes wrong? What if they don't like...
Loving the Child You Have, Not the Child You Imagined
There is a truth about parenting that we don't talk about very often. Before our children are born, most of us begin imagining who they might become. We wonder what they'll look like, what they'll enjoy, what they'll be good at, and what kind of relationship we'll...
On the Meaning of Our Work
Today is Labor Day, which for many of us means the unofficial end of summer, a long weekend, perhaps a cookout, and—hopefully—a day away from work. But Labor Day has a history worth remembering. The first Labor Day celebration took place in New York City on September...
Why Awe is Good for Your Mental Health
This weekend didn't go quite the way I had originally planned. For months, I had expected to be in Frankenmuth, Michigan, riding in an MS charity cycling event with our team. Of course, my cycling accident earlier this summer changed those plans. I haven't been able...
Who Are You Becoming
One of the questions I've been thinking about lately is deceptively simple: Who are you becoming? We spend a tremendous amount of time thinking about what we need to do. We make to-do lists, set goals, plan vacations, build careers, save for retirement, and measure...