Welcome to the Existential Roundup, where we bring you links to some articles currently trending that may be of interest to those in the existential-humanistic psychology community. As the year draws to a close, these year-end list do as well. To end this year on a high note, we would like to look back on… Read more »
I just returned from my fifth year at Burning Man, and like every other year, I was not disappointed. With all of the recent press coverage, both positive and negative, Black Rock City is beginning to give the impression of a trendy spectacle of hippy Zsas Zsas and Warhols, but I caution: nothing could be… Read more »
Photo by Alan Levine. I believe that being a poet is a revolutionary act. Please note, I did not say writing or reading poetry. I said, “Being a poet.” For me, this means witnessing the world and one’s self with poetic vision. Poetic vision includes a potency, a quality of existence that both descends and… Read more »
When I was about 18 years old, I made a decision to stop smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol completely. I don’t believe that I had a problem with abuse, and my decision was of my own motivation. I was an experimenting teenager. However, I had been exposed to addiction in my family and possessed a… Read more »
Johann Peter Hasenclever’s Die Sentimentale This past week I was looking for a definition of perception for some academic work and sat down to read through my notes on Aldous Huxley’s Doors of Perception (1954). The vivid accounts of magnanimous shifts of consciousness were enticing. I thought about the fantastic accounts of folds in trousers… Read more »
Photo by D. Sharon Pruitt. I would believe only in a God that knows how to dance — Friedrich Nietzsche The best tools I have found for living well as an adult came from my experiences as a little girl. Two that I particularly recall are writing poetry and placing it in the collections plate… Read more »
Photo Illustration by Craig Sunter. A friend recently asked me for some support regarding a personal issue. I was limited with my time to give help immediately, but I wanted to offer something of value to this person. I could identify with her distress. She was faced with what seemed like the need to make… Read more »
When you think about sensuality, what comes to mind? Sexuality? Touching other people? Attraction? Women slurping noodles with abandon, or men smelling like old spice? Sensuality is a way of being in contact. When we are in touch with our senses, it usually involves the impact of something external. If we smell a hyacinth, we… Read more »
Have you ever paid attention to what it is that you notice in the world? I emphasize the word “notice.” In Dialectic Behavior Therapy and Mindfulness, “notice” is a word that can substitute for “judging.” Judging is a cognitive process that often locks a person into a moral paradigm that can be limiting. Judging creates… Read more »
Photo by Sean O’Flaherty. I was sitting in an Alanon Step meeting last week, working on step #3: “We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.” I was listening to the stories of people in crisis, or people who were impacted by… Read more »
