A few blog posts ago I talked about whose fault is loneliness. Feeling lonely often corresponds to feeling unloved. I’d like to consider the dynamics of loneliness and love a bit longer. How do you relate love and loneliness in your life? The following quote from Irvin Yalom might help clarify what we search for… Read More Existential Love
It is not surprising that I’m drawn to Existentialist Psychotherapy in the lineage of Rollo May, Irvin Yalom, Vicktor Frankl practicing the philosophies of Kierkagaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Husserl and others. The basic premise as Irvin Yalom explains below is the humble defense of the ancient belief that self-awareness leads to a meaningful fulfilling life… Read More Self-Aware Ease
Let’s not get romantic or dismal about death.Indeed it’s our most unique act along with birth.We must think of it as cooking breakfast,it’s that ordinary. Break two eggs into a bowlor break a bowl into two eggs. Slip into a coffinafter the fluids have been drained, or better yet,slide into the fire. Of course it’s… Read More Food Poem – Death Again by Jim Harrison
How often do we feel in ourselves or notice in others the pangs of isolation and loneliness? We feel misunderstood, judged, rejected and diminished by others, and so we begin to self-isolate. In reading Irvin Yalom’s Existential Psychotherapy I came across a shift in perspective. What if I am responsible for my loneliness? What if,… Read More Whose fault is loneliness?
My dear fellow readers, writers, yogis, therapists, eaters and travelers, I want to share this first with you. I’m nervous and you have already patiently and generously read about my loves and losses. Thank you for being my sounding board and inspiration. Suspecting that I’m not alone in my travel anxieties and discomforts, I wrote… Read More (Travel)-Guide Post
The symptoms of cherophobia or fear of happiness can often be confused with depression. While depression is a persistent feeling of anhedonia (inability to feel pleasure), cherophobia is an active avoidance of things that might bring joy. Cherophobia can be culturally prescribed. For example, I remember growing up with the Bengali (or was it a… Read More Cherophobia – Am I afraid of happiness?
As long as I can look back and say “There’s no way I could have been grouchier,” it was good day. Oscar the Grouch, The Pursuit of Grouchiness I aspire to Oscar’s about the author page… “Oscar the the Grouch doesn’t need to explain himself to you. He lives in a trash can on Sesame… Read More Cookie Monster and Oscar’s Guide to Life
Like you, Hungyphil has many dimensions and manifestations: Wobblyogi and now Angstytherapist. This blog started as a way to retain and share food experiences, it grew to add yoga and mindfulness, and now counseling and therapy. Like the Very Hungry Caterpillar, Hungry Philosopher is munching away at life one leaf at a time. Not sure… Read More Cooking is my coping skill
I am an extra. I am a non-speaking character in a coffee shop background sipping coffee and staring at my laptop. There are raindrops on the windows, a blade of grass moving in the wind outside, cars moving past on the road, murmuring conversations, a large orange sculpture, a concrete floor, a sneeze, a ding,… Read More Being Extra: the sauce of life
It was Valentine’s Day, 2013. I had waited all day in fear, as fellow tenure-bound colleagues celebrated with online posts conveying relief and joy. When I finally got the evening call from the dean of liberal arts, “I’m sorry, there just wasn’t enough,” he said. That was it, a quick and sudden death of my… Read More Advice from a Recovering Academic
