Liberty, Self-Limitation and COVID-19

These have been stressful, unusual times. There are no easy answers as to how we protect one another from the medical risks of COVID-19, while also enabling people to support themselves and their families.  Opinions vary and emotions run deep. As state and local governments begin to relax the restrictions that have been…

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7 Things To Do During The Pandemic

In this time of uncertainty, when so much that we understood and believed about the world, and the way we organized our lives, has been turned upside down, there are a few things we can remember and do to maintain our center and make the best choices for our health and…

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10 Questions To Ask In A Different Way

The New Year is often a time for assessing things: For looking back over the past twelve months or twelve years, at our successes and shortcomings, our rejoices and regrets, and for looking ahead at what we hope for the future. The hard thing with any self-assessment, is not the…

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Mud and Dreams (Now Available!)

I am excited to announce that my first full book is now available.  (You can find it here.) Mud and Dreams is a series of essays on the poetry and science of living. A work of “motivational poetics” the book speaks directly to the human concerns at the center of…

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Discovering Meaning (3 Exercises)

Joy, happiness, Awe, Sean Doyle, Positive psychology

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche famously said that “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” Research and experience have shown this to be true. Having a sense of meaning makes us more resilient and persistent, and less dissuaded by setbacks. It helps us find creative…

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Changing the Narrative (Part 2)

The stories we tell ourselves matter. However, so often these tales that are so fundamental to who we are, are based upon just some of the truths from our complex and beautiful lives. When we change the narrative, we open new possibilities for our happiness and effectiveness and well-being. (Read more on the Narratives…

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Changing the Narrative (Part 1)

The stories we tell ourselves matter. They make a difference in how we think about who we are and the way we structure our lives. They affect the paths we blaze and those we follow. Our stories inform every sigh and every tear, keep us afloat, and connect us to…

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Humanity and Saving a Nation

The poet Czeslaw Milosz once asked, ‘What is poetry which does not save/Nations or people?”   In the 1989 work Zinky Boys, Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich, shows us what is at stake. Alexievich, a Belarusian literary journalist, won the 2015 Nobel for her collections of haunting interviews. In Voices from…

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