COVID-19, Social Isolation, and the New Science of Adaptive Loneliness
Abstract This article was initially published as the President’s Column for the October 2020 edition of the Positive Living Newsletter. We were born alone, we suffer alone, and we die alone. It becomes increasingly difficult to ignore this existential reality in the...
How a Healthy Dosage of Self-Transcendence can Overcome COVID-19
Abstract This article was initially published as the President's Column for the July 2020 edition of the Positive Living Nesletter. Never before have so many people experienced such a high level of stress and anxiety. Frontline health workers and service providers are...
Coping with the Mental Health Crisis of COVID-19: A Resilience Perspective
We are now living through an unprecedented time. COVID-19, the worst pandemic in modern history, has fundamentally changed life as we know it. Everyone’s life is disrupted. The virus is more contagious and deadly than anyone had expected. There seems no end to how bad...
The Positive Psychology of Persistence and Flexibility
What are the most valuable life strategies essential for survival and resilience? What are the most common traits shared by successful athletes and CEOs? More importantly, what are the virtues most important in living the good life? My answer to all the above...
New Year’s Resolutions: Four Proven Ways to Make Them Stick
In this holiday season, life can be very stressful for many people. It can be due to too many festive activities or the awkward moments during family gatherings. It can also be due to the painful loneliness of spending Christmas and a new year alone and grieving the...
What is the Greatest Need Today? Responsibility is the Key to Surviving and Thriving in Dangerous Times
Abstract In a democratic society, people are free to choose, but are not free from the consequences of their choices. A sense of responsibility towards the self, others, and a higher authority serves the important function of guiding people to make the right choices....
How I Cracked Nature’s Code for Positive Mental Health: Introduction and My Search for Meaning
President's Column for the Positive Living Newsletter (July 2019). Read the rest of the newsletter here.Introduction The answer to my lifelong search for meaning and happiness in times of suffering seems surprisingly simple: To live a meaningful life regardless of...
Let Your Vulnerability be Your Strength
President's Column for the Positive Living Newsletter (March 2019). Read the rest of the newsletter here.Are you worried about being vulnerable? “Vulnerability” is derived from the Latin word vulnerare (to be wounded); it describes the potential to be injured...
The 10th Biennial Meaning Conference and the Future of the INPM
President's Column for the Positive Living Newsletter (Sept. 2018). You can find the rest of the Newsletter here. The sights and sounds of the recent Meaning Conference in Vancouver, Canada remain very vivid in my mind. There are so manymeaningful memories of...
Meaning Therapy and the Toronto Van Attack
President's Column for the Positive Living Newsletter (May 2018). Read the rest of the newsletter here. On May 6, I did a one-hour interview at the Fairchild TV Studio in Richmond Hill, Ontario, for their program Leisure Talk (大城小聚), which features special guests...
Why the 2018 Meaning Conference is Worth Attending
President's Column for the Positive Living Newsletter (January 2018). Read the rest of the newsletter here. There are almost countless conferences each year—positive psychology conferences for positive psychologists, existential conferences for existential...
Why I Love Taiwan
President's Report for the Positive Living Newsletter (November 2017). Read the rest of the newsletter here. This is my fourth and the longest lecture tour in Taiwan. After four weeks of immersion in her culture and close interactions with her people, I have...