![[Everyday] Psychophilosophy](https://everydaypsychophilosophy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/cropped-10-21-16-unsquished-everydaypsychophilosophy-header.png)
Who Helps Whom?
We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don’t know. — W.H. Auden In the 5th grade, a nameless young girl saved my life. Well, she saved me $0.75, which is kind of like saving one’s life at that age. At a garage sale, I found a basketball signed by Damon Stoudamire, one of my favorite players at the time. And for this signed ball, the adult was only charging $0.75… Say...
The Scarlet T
You must learn a new way to think before you can master a new way to be. — Marianne Williamson Today’s topic took a bit of courage for me to write about. It’s hard to put any version of yourself on the Internet that isn’t perfect, our strong social motivations always wanting to portray ourselves from the most flattering angles. So, to publicly inform others of something “negative” about oneself can be rather scary. But I...
Beat Back the Blues
You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection. — Buddha We all feel sad now and again, caught in those funks we wish we could Rip Van Winkle ourselves out of. But when a good night’s rest and some exercise doesn’t fix the issue, that depression can make even the far-forever future seem trapped in the present gloom. For most people, however, we only feel depressed rather than have...
Be the Hero
We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone. – Ronald Reagan If you’re anything like me, you spend most meetings imagining that part of the ceiling is about to fall, right before you save the person underneath it. Or, terrorists suddenly burst into the room and your sequence of takedowns is executed with mathematical deadliness. But let’s be real—those moments only transpire like what, a dozen times in one’s life? So,...
If Only the World Had More of This
Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It’s the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else’s pain is as meaningful as your own. — Barbara Kingsolver To be honest, I was going to spend today’s post with a follow-up on naïve realism, but then I encountered this other website that did a much better job of explaining it than I did last week—and really, tied it all...