Category » Applied Philosophy & Psychology
Stages of Recovery: 1. Abstinence
As most readers of this blog are interested in addiction, this entry will focus on research outlining the stages of recovery from that condition. Although published in 2015, the work from which I draw, much of what follows, is new to me, and I believe, to the SMART Recovery community with whom I’m associated. There […]
Purpose, Values, & Goals II
The promise, at the end of the last blog, was to resume work with a discussion of the preconditions of purpose i.e., what factors facilitate or prevent people from identifying and pursuing their own purpose? “Purpose, n. 1. The object toward which one strives or for which something exists; goal; aim…3. Determination; resolution…from Latin…to put […]
Purpose, Values, & Goals (in Recovery)
Before beginning this blog, I reviewed the online list of past blogs figuring this subject had been addressed—and that I had better pick up where the last one left off. But it hasn’t been written so here goes! “Purpose, n. 1. The object toward which one strives or for which something exists; goal; aim…3. Determination; […]
Fear & Resentment II
Last week, this blog ended with an incomplete discussion. This week, we look at using M. Scott Peck’s transcendence of the difficulty of life as a way to make life less painful. Pain and resentment—as drivers of addictive behaviours—were also examined. One of the key takeaways from last week’s blog was the unoriginal observation that […]
Fear & Resentment
In a recent SMART Recovery meeting one of the attendees was resisting letting go of sadness and tears. This blog is about the cost of unacknowledged, unprocessed emotion. I remember realizing how afraid of my own emotions I had been, for a good part of my life, and becoming excited at a Stratford (Ontario) rendition […]
Shakespeare & Recovery
Be forewarned, this blog wrestles with some ideas about the greatness of Shakespeare, an increasingly deprecated value, though not in this quarter. In an attempt to live a life exposed to the best of the past, I have been a fan of Shakespeare’s work since boyhood. My father revered him and had his complete works […]
Patterns & Textures
I had the good fortune to take my Ancient Greek philosophy course with Dr. John Russon at the University of Guelph. I asked him for some recommendations to further my understanding of Aristotle’s thinking, and he suggested Sparshott’s Taking Life Seriously, a book I’m reading slowly and carefully. In an early portion of that book, […]
One Day at a Time: The Stoic Take
We begin with a quote from Seneca (a Stoic) requiring dissection and understanding to realize that in its prayer-like simplicity, it contains some valuable hints about the living of an examined life. “Let us therefore set out whole-heartedly, leaving aside our many distractions and exert ourselves in this single purpose, before we realize too late […]
Legitimate Suffering
As many of you know, some of these blogs are the result of questions SMART Recovery attendees have asked. This blog is another answer to a gratefully received question. That question sought understanding of a quote attributed to Dr. Carl Jung (1887-1961) stating that “The foundation of all mental illness is the unwillingness to experience […]
The Rational Person
This blog is the direct result of the entry for 22 April in The Daily Stoic (Holiday & Hanselman, 2016, p. 124). This blog also marks two years of regular posts with great thanks to the many readers who have responded with encouragement, questions, and comments. The Daily Stoic post identified three attributes of a […]