Meaning in Life - the Essential Internal Compass & Life Force

     When parents, religious organizations, & schools fail to teach-by-embodying the meaningfulness of life, who will shine a light on & nurture this critical life force within each human being?
     Mindfulness (MBSR) is an evidence-based method / way of being, through which we EXPERIENCE the fact that meaning in life is independent of external forces. 

     "cross-sectional studies indicate that people who report greater meaning in life show less distress following stressful events such as terrorist attacks, cancer diagnoses, and bereavement.
     ... despite the toxic effect of bullying, meaning in life may prevent a young person from internalizing the victimization and/or provide a young person with additional reasons to live. 

     counselor, school or family-based interventions designed to bolster meaning in life & teach students that meaning in life should not be tied to external forces could be effective at helping students maintain a strong meaning in life, regardless of external circumstances that are perhaps beyond her control."

       Henry KL et al. The potential role of meaning in life in the relationship between bullying victimization and suicidal ideation. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 2013 DOI 10.1007/s10964-013-9960-2.

Pan Ice by Don Pentz   http://www.fogforestgallery.ca/bios/bio_pentz.html

Healing & Humanizing Ourselves & Health-care

     "There is only one tactical principle which is not subject to change. It is to use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wound, death, and destruction on the enemy in the minimum amount of time."  General George S. Patton Jr (1885-1945) Liberalism is a Mental Disorder : Savage Solutions‎ (2005) by Michael Savage.
     Not surprisingly (mis)attributed to Patton, a popular poster in the 1970s showed a cave-man-like brute carrying a huge club, with the caption: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil, because I'm the meanest son-of-a-bitch in the valley."
    "Blow-em-up" movies (Terminator, Dirty Harry, etc) are predictable box office hits. But isn't it frightening the degree to which even health-care professionals identify with such fear-based primitive instincts? Don't we also "wage war" on diseases like cancer? Don't we choose leaders who can force through our agendas ie are more brutish than wise? And don't we routinely try to fake cold objectivity, toughness, invincibility, and even infallibility?
     "Kindness, humanity, and respect — the core values of medical professionalism — are too often being overlooked in the time pressured culture of modern health care." Chochinov HM. BMJ 2007; 335: 184-7. And the problem is not just "time poverty". How many of us, out of fear, routinely deal with "the real world" armored in aggression & cynicism?
     Many of us have become so identified with "doing science", as to almost exclude any ease or joy of simply "being" healthy ordinary humans. If so, don't we need to become more balanced human beings to enjoy life and become more effective healers?
     The 1st International Congress on Whole Person Care  will be held at McGill University, in beautiful & vibrant Montreal, Quebec, Canada - October 17-20, 2013. "Take the time to reconnect with what healthcare is for you and what it could be…." Themes will be healing, self-care and professionalism - see: www.wpc2013.ca

"Clast-o-Lantern" photomicrograph by John R. Kalmar, DMD, PhD