by Aren Henry | April, 2022 | Clarity is . . ., Grit/Grace/Gratitude, Karen Henry, Light Life, Noetic Nomad
30% of the population lives with mental illness. That’s a statistic shared with me in an early 2000’s introduction to positive psychology. Today, Johns Hopkins reports that 26% of Americans suffer from a mental illness. Globally, it is reported that 11-18% of the global population has a mental illness. This is of course, a sliding scale based on culture, location, values, and other demographics. The term ‘illness’ is something experts are working toward changing, since it isn’t exactly true of everyone who lives on a spectrum of mental health. Think about the “Big Five”. Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Our mental health is as much on a sliding scale as our physical health. No two of us are exactly alike, so why shouldn’t we apply what we know in our positive psychology to the categorized ‘illnesses’, which in some cases, are simply states of being? Adaptation of the term “Illness” No two individuals experience the world in the same way. This is true of those who live in abundance and those who live in a depletion of resources. There are times when higher levels of neuroticism is simply a cultural trait, rather than an individual red flag. The same is true for a lack of openness, or a mindset that is more collective, rather than individualistic. Experiencing traumatic events over time, as an environmental event, can skew our perception by tricking our brain into thinking that we need to be on high alert much more often than we actually do. Applied Perception of Mental Illness I imagine that there is a great deal of proactive, determined, grit...
by Aren Henry | April, 2022 | Clarity is . . ., Grit/Grace/Gratitude, Karen Henry, Light Life, Noetic Nomad
What happens when we use applied positive psychology on the darkness in the world today? This is something I’ve been contemplating for several years now. While working with people who were truly suffering, I attempted to apply positive psychology. I was in a place where the focus was on the pathology intertwined with agency policy over people. It didn’t go well. In the immortal words of Marty Seligman, on the state of psychology, “It’s good, but not good enough”. That statement stuck with me for the past thirteen years. When I worked for that agency, they were still using the same model of pathology under the same supervision of someone who had never professionally left her position for twenty years. The agency reflected the leadership. I knew I had to leave. The worldview would never be eye to eye. Darkness The challenge was, “Can we make miserable people less miserable?”. Beyond the pathology, there is another option. This was the seed planted in 1998. In today’s world, many of us have suffered loss in unbelievable ways. The darkness of the global pandemic turned us toward each other. The virtual world. The indelible lightness of being one with hope continues to hold on to those who believe the power of the mind. Something that has been tested and challenged for most of us. The more struggle and hardship someone has, the harder it is to buckle down on seeing the good in people. Those determined to rise above will already have a set mindset. Others have the opportunity to change their mindset. With work. For those who’ve lived in suffering, the...
by Aren Henry | March, 2022 | Clarity is . . ., Grit/Grace/Gratitude, Karen Henry, Light Life, Noetic Nomad
The light life leans on languishing. The NYTimes recently published an Adam Grant article about how so many of us are languishing as a result of the relentless pandemic. Of course, once one major news source picks up a key concept, a flood of others follow suit. So? Are we all languishing these days, or is it that we were inundated with this idea that we are? Languishing? This feeling of emptiness, or apathy as we see wave after wave of bad to horrible news is a very real concern today. In 2002, a scholar at Emory University published an article about languishing compared to flourishing. It was in the early days of positive psychology, when we were all so excited to finally speak out loud about the good things in the world. Keyes work has followed us into the other side of despair. We want to flourish, of course, but today, twenty years later and two years into living in a global pandemic, I have to ask, is languishing really such a bad thing? Flourishing Flourishing means that we are productive, joyful, engaged, and love all the parts of our lives. For the most part, if we are flourishing, we are also emotionally strengthened by our own sense of purpose. However, what happens to those who only focus on being productive, flourishing and engaging? Will they have the strength to bounce back from a longer period of languishing? Will they know how? For those of us who experienced terrible life events prior to the pandemic, there seems to have been a push for outward joy. We encourage productivity,...
by Aren Henry | March, 2022 | Clarity is . . ., Grit/Grace/Gratitude, Karen Henry, Light Life, Noetic Nomad
The light life gets personal. It’s hard to imagine that 2007 was fifteen years ago, but that’s how long I’ve been in the positive psychology business. First, as a doctoral student, then university teacher, and finally, as a mental health coach. I called myself a “positive psychology practitioner” long before anyone decided to make that an official title, with a certificate program. I was in constant contact with people in the field by lending my voice to the ‘movement’ where I interacted with some of the now, biggest names in the field. I almost became a MAPP myself, before my life imploded. Implode it did. Though, I don’t share that story here, I’m not shy about what happened. Story Telling When we share our personal accounts of life events, or life lessons, we become vulnerable to the judgment of others. The things that were once valuable, become worthless while the things we never noticed, become a glaring awakening to our personal development. Sharing my story turned me into a bit of an outcast in the field. In my personal life, I lost everything within a very short period of time. I almost lost my daughter to a brutal experience on top of everything else. In telling the world my story, I was met with some shocking truths about some of the individuals I knew in our field. Two core truths: Not everyone had the bandwidth or interest in hearing about grief or loss in relation to a positive psychology I was also met with a great deal of rejection when I didn’t pull out of the grief that followed...
by Aren Henry | February, 2022 | Clarity is . . ., Grit/Grace/Gratitude, Karen Henry, Light Life, Noetic Nomad
How deep is your love? Do you love yourself? How about your metaphorical neighbors? Your parents or family? The stranger on the bus, trying to make their way home? Humans are disconnecting from each other through our labels, categories, and fundamental belief systems. We are forgetting that neurologically, we are all connected. Each of us is a reflection of where we focus, yet with social media, it’s become more evident that we are also in a psychological deficit. “We live in a society that disconnects from generations” ~ Dr. Gabor Mate Connection is … Our connection to the whole person experience of being alive is the only way for us to fully embrace the existential exploration of this time in our lives. Our meaningful experiences are fueled by neurological connection to all that we absorb. When we allow technology to do our critical thinking, we are giving up a piece of our humanity. Why then, are we so addicted to the technological life line that brings us all knowledge? Our connection to the world has become increasingly harder. In tandem with our younger generations, being disconnected from forming healthy long lasting human interactions, we are trading difficult emotional connection with technological connection. Will this mean that our next generation won’t know how to cope with hard experiences? Can love be experienced as a balm to soothe our soul as we navigate the global stressors we’ve been under? Love is … What is love to the extent that we are focused on the way we experience it? Love is what motivates us to want to make the world a...
