Ideas on Mental Health & Meaning
Youth & Mature Life
Youth has many advantages over old age: It contains the seed of it's own future. But one thing youth never has: the collected harvest of a mature life. Elisabeth Lukas People may be forsaken, lonely, the loneliness depresses them, and yet there is a brilliant...
Hunger & Meaning
If you believe you always have to still your hunger before you can think of the meaning of life, you are mistaken. Because without knowing about the deeper meaning of life you can bear neither hunger nor full satiation. Elisabeth Lukas Dr. Elisabeth...
Happiness, Haidt, and Parenting
If you've been reading the past few weeks, you may have read about The Happiness Hypothesis, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt's collection of ancient wisdom and modern science on happiness. It's a fascinating read that has more to do with discovering meaning than...
Too Much Growth?
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Logotherapy concept “noö-dynamics” - the idea that the human spirit calls us to grow and evolve, to become more than we are; even though there are times that our minds, our bodies, maybe even modern society, tells us to seek...
Fail Often
“We live in a society in which we are terrified to fail… and it is killing us.” - Dr. Leonard Wisneski, Interim Director of the Integrative Health Policy Consortium. Our fear of failure is harmful. Even deadly. We are stressing ourselves to the point of...
Resilience w/ Dr. Steven Southwick
Resilience is the ability to "bounce back" after a difficult life event - whether it is the death of a loved one, job loss, natural disaster, or mental, emotional, physical, or sexual trauma. We will all face difficulties in life, many of us will face truly traumatic...
The Happiness Hypothesis
"Happiness can not be pursued, it must ensue." - Viktor Frankl We cannot find true happiness looking for it, we have to do things, create things, engage in things that bring happiness. The Happiness Hypothesis, by Jonathan Haidt, has about 250 pages full of ideas on...
Chasing the Scream
I found Johann Hari's TED talk about addiction several months ago - it was compelling enough for me to read his book, Chasing the Scream. You can watch the video below - I would be curious to know what you think. As an addictions professional for the past 20 years -...
The Noö-dynamics of Behavior
Noö-dynamics. I really just love that word and wanted another excuse to talk about it. I was reminded of this awesome concept as I was just finishing up the write up of The Meaning Project for a conference in June. If all goes well, I will earn the Diplomate in...
Judgement and Happiness
"Judgmentalism is in indeed a disease of the mind: it leads to anger, torment, and conflict. But it is also the mind's natural condition - the elephant (the uncontrollable, impulsive part of the mind) is always evaluating, always saying "Like it" or "Don't like it." ...
Carry the Heavy Burden
"If architects want to strengthen a decrepit arch, they increase the load which is laid upon it, for thereby the parts are joined more firmly together. So if therapists wish to foster their patients’ mental health, they should not be afraid to create a sound amount of...
Changing the Substance Abuse Epidemic
As you may know, our country is in the grips of a substance abuse epidemic. Lives are lost every day. The addict is not the homeless man on the street drinking out of a brown bag. He could be your neighbor, she could be your friend. It's not always obvious. The...