Anthony Tshering
A Guide To Spirituality: Being versus Doing

I read a wonderful piece in Tricycle magazine today about what a spiritual life looks like. The timing for me to read it was perfect. It’s something I’ve been trying to make sense of recently.

We are very much a doing world. Even the language of therapy is often about doing. Everyone seems to come in and say to me, “I need to work on myself,” or “I need to work on my relationships.” The sentiment is understandable. We are a self-improvement culture. Our lives are viewed linearly, our lives a constant striving for self-improvement with a beginning, middle, and end. There is much usefulness in seeing the world this way. It is goal-orientated and results-focused first and foremost. It has helped create the world around us, including the computer I type on now or the smartphone I use to answer my emails and check social media. A lot of us internalize this productive voice and hear it in the daily chatter of our thinking self and assume this is who we are.

A Guide To Spirituality: Being versus Doing
Meaning, Spirituality
Anthony Tshering
Reflections on God, Death, Meaning and ...

“Do you pray?” I once asked a patient.

“No, I’ve never been able to for some reason” she paused. “Do you?”

“No,” I said. “Because I don’t know if anyone is listening.”

It has always struck me as inconceivable that someone is listening to prayer. How can people be sure of some divine force in their lives? Even such Christian luminaries such as Martin Luther King and Mother Theresa experienced their doubts about God. I am no different. God does not speak to me in tongues or voices. All I hear are silent ellipses where I sense holiness in the mundane, the awe-inspiring in the ordinary. God has always seemed like an inelegant, hollow solution to the problem of meaning and death.

Reflections on God, Death, Meaning and Spirituality
Anthony Tshering
Everything's Amazing And Nobody's Happy: The ...

Everything's amazing and nobody's happy- Louis C.K.

“To live fully is to live with an awareness of the rumble of terror that underlies everything.” 
― Ernest Becker

A few years ago, a patient of mine wondered out loud why he was unhappy. After all he was a successful lawyer, involved in a loving relationship with a partner, lived in one of the nicer neighborhoods in Brooklyn and had a group of close friends whom he saw socially. So what was wrong? "Something just doesn't feel right. I have the gnawing feeling that something should be different," he said. 

Everything's Amazing And Nobody's Happy: The First Step Toward Emotional Change

Recapturing The Feeling of Awe For Life: Using Art To Appreciate Existence

Recapturing The Feeling of Awe For Life: Using Art To Appreciate Existence

“The feeling of awed wonder that science can give us is one of the highest experiences of which the human psyche is capable. It is a deep aesthetic passion to rank with the finest that music and poetry can deliver. It is truly one of the things that make life worth living and it does so, if anything, more effectively if it convinces us that the time we have for living is quite finite.” 
― Richard Dawkins,

I haven't had a spare moment to write today until now unfortunately but I wanted to write a quick blog post. I've been thinking about "awe" lately. There was a time when the feeling of awe, the majesty of existence, was a natural feeling for me. I could see the beauty of the drift of autumn leaves in a light breeze or the wonder of the sunset over the ocean and feel appreciative that I existed even if I was suffering at the moment. And I was acutely aware of my own mortality, which strangely made me more appreciative for each moment. 

I've somehow lost that feeling over the years. I think some of that is that I don't put in a conscious effort to feel that awe anymore. Not meditating as much as I used to is a big part of this. And the truth is it takes work and constant reminders to know that I am alive and that my experience is special. And to be honest, I feel like my iPhone has done unmitigated damage to me in that respect. I spend too much time looking at my screens (as I am now), and I forgot to look and enjoy the beauty of existence. 

Capitalism, Socialism, and Mental Illness

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I've been a bit out of commission today so haven't had a chance to write much. A longer post will have to wait until Thursday. But I don't want to leave you emptyhanded. Here is a piece I enjoyed very much called "Capitalism, Socialism, and Mental Illness" by Dana L. Cloud that I'd like to share with you all. 

The Cloud lecture provides excellent background information and history, which I am largely ignorant of, about the history of capitalism and its effects on the human psyche. (I've tried to dive into the subject but knowledge was lacking a bit). Here is one tidbit I particularly enjoyed: 

"Although the ideas surrounding of mental illness are socially constructed, it is the case that capitalism makes us literally sick with diseases caused by environmental toxins, the stress of overwork, difficulties in supporting a family, hunger and malnutrition, substance abuse, and so on. Capitalism also makes us sick of it, leading to protest and rebellion. A hallmark of militant social movements is to turn around the definitions of mental illness and describe the system itself as irrational and harmful."

I think the paragraph one of the key ideas I always to impart in my writing: even things we consider "facts" or "reality" are social and cultural constructions. (Check out Lisa Feldman Barrett's How Emotions Are Made") for fascinating a neuroscience discussion on how even emotions considered to be universal are constructions of the society we live in). 

Even the idea of a biological or psychiatric disorder is not created on its own but is a directly influenced by the society in which it comes into being. The most obvious psychiatric disorder that fits this category is anorexia. Anorexia can only exist in the context of the society in which it was given birth. And our society just so happens to be misogynistic, oppressive and capitalist. 

Guilt and Pushing Against The Protestant Work Ethic

Guilt and Pushing Against The Protestant Work Ethic

This morning, I've been struggling to write. It's making me anxious. And when I get anxious, I want to do something mindless like watch YouTube basketball highlights. I suspect I'm not in alone in wanting to avoid what is hard. 

I often think about where my anxiety comes from when it pops up, and I find that it is highly connected to guilt. I have a guilty conscience. There's definitely a gap between what I think I "should" be doing or "should" be acting and what I actually do or actually act. This dichotomy often leaves me feeling like I'm doing something wrong. It's not always a fun way to live. 

I talk about this not because I want to relive my adolescent, confessional Typepad blog days, but because I notice this similar guilt with a lot of people in sessions and with my friends and family. The reasons for this often vary. Maybe they had demanding parents. Or maybe they have a sensitive temperament.

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"Battle Cry Of Freedom" and The American Civil War: Thoughts On the Central Event of American History

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"Battle Cry Of Freedom" and The American Civil War: Thoughts On the Central Event of American History

(I've linked all the books I've mentioned throughout the article to amazon links in case you're interested in reading them.)

Recently the writer, Ta-Nehisi Coates, published a Civil War reading list, "Five Books To Make You Less Stupid About the Civil War." It was in response to White House Chief of Staff, John Kelly, stating, “the lack of an ability to compromise led to the Civil War," which one of the stupider things anyone could say about American history. 

I had read one of the books on the list, "The Life and Times of Frederick Douglas," but not any of the others. I'm a bit of a history nut, so my knowledge of the Civil War, informed by school and the Ken Burns Civil War Documentary, was probably better than most. But still, I knew I was lacking in knowledge about what is undoubtedly the central event in American History. 

Coates praise of one book caught my eye,

"1) Battle Cry Of Freedom: Arguably among the greatest single-volume histories in all of American historiography, James McPherson’s synthesis of the Civil War is a stunning achievement. Brisk in pace. A big-ass book that reads like a much slimmer one. The first few hundred pages offer a catalogue of evidence, making it clear not just that the white South went to war for the right to own people, but that it warred for the right to expand the right to own people. Read this book. You will immediately be less stupid than some of the most powerful people in the West Wing."

So I picked it up and started to read it immediately. In about 2 weeks I've read about 600 of its 900 pages. It's an incredible book, one of the best books I've ever read, and along with Tony Judt's Postwar.

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Why Not Eating Beef Can Help Save the World

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Why Not Eating Beef Can Help Save the World

I recently became a vegetarian. I say this not to brag because it's not a big deal. But I think it's worthwhile to discuss why I made the shift. The decision was very much connected to climate change. 

Why Isn't Everyone Terrified of Climate Change?

Despite the many dire warnings that climate change is here and is going to have disastrous consequences for this planet,  I found a lack of urgency about it among political leaders but also among most everyday people. Some of it is because people are in denial that climate change is even real. Some of it is because the true causes of climate change are so ingrained in our culture, that reversing it would require wholesale changes in the way we live. 

But I think biggest reason of all is that most of us feel a lack of powerlessness around our politics. To put it simply: What are we supposed to do? We are a socially powerless and disengaged people who live to consume. This powerlessness is one of the byproducts of modernism and a neoliberal economy. All of us disconnected in some respect and check out because we have no idea how to act or meaningfully help the world. 

The Climate Crisis Is Here. Yet We Do Nothing: The Last Throes of Late Capitalism

The Climate Crisis Is Here. Yet We Do Nothing: The Last Throes of Late Capitalism

I just read this fantastic New York Times piece, "The Climate Crisis? It's Capitalism, Stupid." I encourage you all to read it. In many ways, it's a perfect distillation of all my current political thought, and why, if I think about it too long, I believe the human race is in a lot of trouble.

The article rightly points out that, the climate crisis is not the failure of individuals or evil corporations but the system as a whole,

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How Your Race and Class Make It More (or Less) Likely to Find a Therapist

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How Your Race and Class Make It More (or Less) Likely to Find a Therapist

If you're a person of color or in the working class and have tried to find a psychotherapist, chances are you had a much harder time reaching one than an upper middle class, white person would have. At least that was the conclusion of one study from the Journal of Health and Social Behavior,

The All-or-Nothing Marriage

The All-or-Nothing Marriage

I've been writing a lot about marriage and relationships lately, mostly because it's an endlessly fascinating subject to me. Healthy marriages are a mystery to me. I can see seemingly perfect fits-- the same race, class, and culture-- and see those relationships end in disaster. On the other end, I've seen the opposite turn into healthy, loving marriages. 

As I wrote about in past blog posts, two important keys to a healthy marriage are embracing change in your marriage and kindness. But I read another piece on the New York Times called, "The All-or-Nothing Marriage" that adds another piece of data to what makes a healthy marriage. 

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Want to Stay Married? Embrace Change

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Want to Stay Married? Embrace Change

This morning I was rereading a wonderful New York Times piece from April called, "To Stay Married, Embrace Change." As a Buddhist, It's a particularly resonate read for me. It reminds me of something Roshi Shunryu Suzuki said when asked to reduce Buddhism down to one phrase, 

"Everything Changes."

As the article points out, to have a successful marriage, we need to realize that we will change but so will our partner. 

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How Capitalism, Greed and Depression are Related

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How Capitalism, Greed and Depression are Related

One subject I don’t see a lot of writing about, but which happens to be one of my primary interests, is how capitalism affects mental health. The effects are often so subtle implicit and woven into the fabric of everyday existence, it can be difficult to parse out. I am by no means an expert and have my own blind spots and biases but I will continue to try and do so in this post and future posts.

My work gives me a unique perch to see how capitalism affects individual psyches and can cause much psychic pain. Because of this perspective, I’ve decided to start writing about how capitalism can affect mental health. Today I’d to begin with depression.