The dangers and stressors that we face in our day to day lives aren’t lions, tigers, or bears that are trying to kill us; our modern day stressors tend to be more intellectual and less physical, less life-and-death and more existential.  We will often say, half-jokingly, that we are “our own worst enemy”, but the truth of the matter is that this is more true than we would like to admit.  

We live in a state of constant uncertainty, always on edge, never knowing what is coming next, and this is slowly taking a toll on our bodies, brains, and relationships. Politics, public health, the economy, and even public safety are all highly uncertain at the moment but many of us are pretending like everything this fine. Our bodies and brains are on edge, flooded with adrenaline and cortisol, and we are primed to explode with rage or run away as fast as we can, but most of us are just sitting at home watching the world burn…

For thousands of years humans have been concerned with figuring out what it means to live the “good life”. The earliest philosophical texts from ancient China and Greece are focused on this question, and this question has occupied philosophers and thinkers from antiquity up to our modern day. When we look at what philosophy, science, and religion have to say about living the “good life" we find that happiness and fulfillment don't come through quick fixes or new age spiritual technologies. Living the good life is relatively simple, but it isn’t easy; it requires effort, focus, and commitment.

Mental health may be the last great frontier of civil rights policy. There continue to be significant amounts of fear and discrimination across society regarding individuals with mental illness. Individuals with mental illness struggle to secure housing, employment, healthcare, and even education because of faulty preconceived notions about mental illness. These preconceived notions arise from a general lack of education and have our inability to have an open, honest dialogue about mental health and mental illness.

It is difficult to talk about mental health as a male in the United States. American men are experiencing an epidemic of loneliness and emotional isolation. As an American male, we have been taught that we shouldn’t need anyone, and that reaching out for help…especially with emotional or mental health issues…is a sign of weakness. As a result many American males don’t have the language to talk about their mental health struggles, and they don’t know how to reach out for help when they are feeling isolated and alone. We are raised with an ideal of manhood that is completely unrealistic and unhealthy and this stereotypical model of masculinity is exacting a terrible toll on men in the United States.