On Meaning and Well Being

I'm back. For the past three years (has it been that long?) I have been distracted by my long distance commuting job, writing book chapters and finishing up a new edition of the textbook I have been working on with my good buds Carolyn and Julie.

In the realm of this blog, I have been working on (and have given several presentations in the US, Europe and Australia) on a model of meaning and well-being.  One of my goals this year is to finally see the model in print.

The model is based on an idea that is both simple and complex at the same time. The simple part is that it presumes that our overall well being at any one point in time is influenced by our personal life story and how well it seems to be "hanging together." By this I mean, that people in distress sometimes describe their situation with an observation that their lives seem to be coming "unraveled." Metaphors in everyday language are interesting, because they give us insights about the images we use internally to make sense of our situations.

Of course, if we use"coming unraveled" to describe distress, it also implies that our view of a state of well being means  can be represented as strands of our lives that are fashioned together in an acceptable way. By this, I don't mean they represent a perfectly knitted afghan, because every life will have knot or stray thread every once in awhile. But overall, the implication is that we like to think that if things are going to be okay, we need to be able to say that we have a satisfactory pattern or coherence to the various strands of our lives.

So, my concept, based on the work of some outstanding social scientists, mostly from psychology, but also some sociologists and anthropologists (and social psychologists), theorizes that there are some predictable situations that put us at risk for feeling that our lives are missing a strand. These notions are largely based on some outstanding work done by Dan Adams and Roy Baumeister, scientists who have pursued some very disparate research during their careers.

Adams is all about describing the properties of unified, coherent life stories, and his work has been groundbreaking in helping to understand the profiles of lives that are viewed as troublesome (or satisfactory) by their owners. Research has shown that these life story archetypes can predict psychological distress and even health issues. Baumeister, on the other hand, has done work in many areas, but has made some seminal contributions to understanding the notion of meaning. He has identified core needs for meaning that can be construed as necessary strands or threads in our lives.

So, since this is starting to get long, I'll pause it here and take it up again in my next blog. In that post, I will identify four key areas that have been shown to be important anchors or characteristics for having a life that we can view as coherent or integrated—and therefore, one that creates a personal context for well-being.

Meantime, as always, I welcome your comments and observations.

Ciao.

Your friends and their friends may influence your health

I recently came across an excellent TED (Technology, Education and Design) Lecture given by Harvard Social Epidemiologist Nicholas Christakis. His work over the past 15 years has shown very interesting relationships between who we know and the state of our health. His work is not about understanding how influenza or other contagious diseases get transmitted, but rather how social connections in general seem to influence the state of our health. For example, Christakis has found that if your friend's friend is obese (even someone you have never met), it increases your risk of also being obese by a rather surprising percentage. That percentage decreases as the social connections become more distant, but the findings are rather surprising and worthy of significant additional scrutiny. Christakis continues to unravel the explanations behind his interesting findings, but suggests that one clear implication is that we can all benefit each other by recognizing that attending to our own health and well-being can have an impact well beyond our lives and the lives of those closest to us. Be intrigued, see Christakis' lecture here.

Tips for Living a Full and Healthy Life

Wow. I like the recommendations in this link to highexistence.com. There is great advice about taking control of your life and beign focused on achieving the sense of self worth, self efficacy and purpose you need to create a life full of beneficial meaning. Sometimes, this requires the centering procedures of a life detox. Some great suggestions for detox are here:

Many of these suggestions fall neatly within the model of life balance that Kathleen Matuska and I published, and which was recently supported in a study titled: Occupational Patterns of Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Revisiting Matuska and Christiansen’s Model of Lifestyle Balance authored by Stein, Foran & Cermak and published in the Journal of Occupational Science, Vol 18 2011. My colleague Sandra Rodgers of Pacific University and I will be presentng some preliminary findings of our study of activity patterns and resiliency at the fall, 2011 meeting of the Society for the Study of Occupation: USA. We hope to see you there.

Care for the Caregivers

Alrighty then. Time to roll up the sleeves and get crackin'. It has been far too long since the last post, but I have not disappeared nor intentionally abandoned my duties. As so often happens, by attention has been devoted to some other things —a book, some speaking engagements and a new marriage for starters.

In my last, sad post, I commented that my next one might be about my reactions to what I have been reading in Krista Tippet's book: Einstein's God. (I've added that to my favorites list). That book was inspired by interviews she gave on her syndicated PBS radio talk show, Speaking of Faith. I find it interesting that the name of the show has now been changed to "On being." Anyway, more posts will follow on that journey, but for the moment, I have other fish to fry.

Lately, I've been thinking about a couple of things that come together at interesting touchpoints. My wife's mother has been diagnosed with dementia, and the threads of memory that serve to bind together experiences into sensible wholes are coming undone. It is terrifying to know one is losing one's abilities, but literally losing the ability to make sense of the world and engage it actively is beyond comprehension, yet it happens every day.

The task of caring compassionately for caregivers is something that often fails to appear on our lists of concerns. But their work is unbelievably important for so many reasons, not the least of which is helping to preserve the coherence in the world for their loved ones; while retaining some semblance of a life of their own. I'm looking for that just right project that will provide some assistance for this effort. If you have an idea, please share it with us here.

Back at it

I'm back and motivated. Why? Because a friend and colleague died suddenly last month and his death motivated me to think some more about the relationship between doing and meaning. His name was Gary Kielhofner, and he was a creative and intelligent thinker in occupational therapy. During his relatively short life, he wrote 20 books, published over 140 research papers, and mentored hundreds of students. He also developed a worldwide model of practice, and published many assessments to support the work of the practice model.

He was a strong advocate for more holistic approaches to understanding health and disease. He had an unusual background that included a classical education, theology, psychology, public health and occupational therapy. That grounded him in his appreciation for how people experience the world and create meaning from it. We are, after all, spiritual beings in a spiritual world.

In my next post, I will describe my current journey provoked by the wonderful book, Einstein's God. Stay tuned!

OT on OT: Hello!

OT on OT: Hello!

The Power of Being Engaged

The last thing a fish notices (if fish do indeed notice, and we presume they do!) is water. They are immersed in it, it sustains their lives, and provides the means for them to get food and swim away when they want to escape being dinner for larger fish. In that sense, water is essential for their well being.

In a similar way, people hardly notice the activities in their lives, and they most certainly underestimate the importance of doing to their well-being and survival. Being engaged is important to us for many reasons, some of which have been articulated in earlier posts on this blog. It's always nice to remind ourselves, however, of things we take for granted.

As a recovering academic (actually, academics are never fully recovered), I have sometimes used examples of life changing events that disrupt people's everyday activities, sometimes temporarily, sometimes progressively, and less often, permanently. Many people fear death, and worry about the complete cessation of their engaging daily occupations, but few people even think about how injuries and disease, or changes in their aging bodies, can limit the things they like to do.

These "things" are activities, sometimes called interests, projects, hobbies, work, tasks or simply "doings." A disease or injury that interferes with movement, or any of our senses, will make doing these things, or engaging in life, more difficult. But, features of the environment, policies, attitudes and other dimensions of life also create barriers to doing. People get passionate about policies that restrict their behaviors. Hopefully, they get equally passionate about finding ways to do the activities they love when adversity starts to create limitations.

If we live long enough, we all begin to experience the normal effects of aging. These diminish our vision, our hearing, our taste, and our ability to move around. People react to these circumstances in different ways. Some compensate and don't miss a beat, and others seem to withdraw, which we now know hastens the process of bodily decline.

So, at long last, the point of all this. Make each activity count. Enjoy the moment and appreciate the power of engagement. It is the very substance that makes life what it is.