Ideas on Mental Health & Meaning

A Meaningful Labor Day

I hope you have enjoyed a relaxing weekend, and a meaningful Labor Day.  For many, it is an extra day away from work before we ceremoniously begin to look to a new season as summer fades.  For others, it may be another day at work.  Wherever you might be, I hope you...

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Is Your Work Meaningless?

I recently heard that the area I live in is a top 10 manufacturing location in the country.  That would seem to suggest there is a lot of money coming in to the area. In the same breath, I heard that this area rates highly in the nation in substance abuse, infant and...

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Help Me Become Better

Although not everyone operates on this schedule, my life is often dictated by an academic calendar - with kids in high school, a wife that teaches, and my own undergraduate and graduate teaching courses, the new academic year is as impactful as the changing of the...

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On the Meaning of Work

"The meaning of life, we have said, is not to be questioned but to be responded to, for we are responsible to life.  It follows from this that the response should be given not in words, but in acting, by doing.  Moreover, the correct response depends upon the...

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Kids & the Existential Vacuum

Recently, a young man won over $3,000,000 in a video game competition - that is incredible, life-changing money for him and his family.  His mother credits his success to the 8 hours each day he spent playing the game over the past two years. 8 hours... Each day. ...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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