In light of this poll, I wanted to ask myself, “What is one piece of advice I would give to those who have been diagnosed with a mental disorder?”

Then I was reminded of something I one time read on a forum for individuals with bipolar disorder (I don’t personally have bipolar disorder, I just like “getting in the trenches” and learning more about disorders by talking to people who actually have them). The person said something really thought-provoking. He didn’t understand why people say “I’m bipolar.” He found it too identifying. He mentioned how we don’t hear people with cancer say “I’m cancer,” or people with depression say “I’m depression.”

Isn’t bipolar just a condition like any other physical or mental condition? Why should those with bipolar disorder then identify themselves as “bipolar?”

I believe the truth is that even those with other mental disorders often identify with their disorder. It begins to become their whole being. It’s a thought that lingers behind everything they do; they wake up in the morning and think “This is me. I am a person with X.”

Now, of course, a mental disorder can play a large role in who we are – but I think we should always be cautious when we narrowly identify ourselves. No, you’re not just a person with bipolar disorder or ADHD or schizophrenia, you might also be a mother/father, a friend, a coworker, an artist, a movie enthusiast, etc. There are so many facets to your being besides your mental condition – don’t forget about them.

I understand that this advice may be easier said than done, but I urge you to actively expand your view of yourself. In fact, I urge anyone to actively expand how they view themselves. Our “self” is a psychophysiological entity that is in a constant state of flux. It is always taking new shapes and forms, from moment to moment, and from year to year. This blog often emphasizes this changing nature.

Those with mental disorders (or any illness) should try extra hard to expand how they perceive themselves. I strongly believe that we choose to define ourselves by creating our own meaning in life. And while I understand that many mental disorders are biologically determinant, and not exactly inside our control, how we define ourselves is very much inside our control. It’s a mental attitude, however, that takes consistent practice to cultivate. I believe that so long as you don’t fully identify with your mental disorder, there is plenty of room to improve your life.

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Of course, positive psychology wasn’t the first to emphasize the importance of meaning in living a satisfying life. Probably ever since human’s first became self-aware, they have asked themselves deep and profound questions about their life’s meaning and purpose. It is a struggle that we all seem to face, but some of us deal with it better than others. The existentialist psychologist Viktor Frankl wrote in his book “Man’s Search for Meaning” how even under the harshest conditions we can find meaning in our suffering, and live with dignity and satisfaction. When Frankl was put into a concentration camp during the Holocaust, he used to give lectures to an imaginary audience. In this way, Frankl learned to cope with his suffering by using his imagination to create a more meaningful existence to his life. He believed that by playing out his imagination objectively, he could find a deeper sense of purpose. He did.

I believe we should all exercise this capacity to some extent, and I believe imagination and creativity play a huge role. The human mind is gifted with this incredibly ability to restructure the way it views reality and experience. And as Frankl demonstrates, we can take truly awful circumstances in our life and transform them into something positive for ourselves.

I found this same theme to be very prevalent in the film Tideland by Terry Gilliam. The main character is a little girl who is incredibly lonely and lives with a very negligent father (played by Jeff Bridges). In some scenes, the little girl actually helps her father shoot up massive amounts of heroin, after which the father passes out for extended periods of time. In the girl’s fit of loneliness and desperation, she goes outside and her imagination takes over. She carries around the heads of three dolls, who all have their own personalities, and together they go on all kinds of adventures. Objectively, the life of this girl is harsh and miserable. But inside her head, she finds a way to get by.

Apparently most people who saw the film found it incredibly depressing (which is understandable) but the director Gilliam emphasizes that we often underestimate just how resilient the human mind is (especially when it is accompanied by a child-like imagination).

Of course, the examples presented by Frankl and Gilliam are extreme cases. But we all go through some kind of suffering, and by creating a new layer of meaning we can find ways to overcome this suffering.

When creating this meaning we don’t need to be as dreamy (or “delusional”) as the little girl in Tideland. Often creating meaning in one’s life is as simple as writing poetry, composing a song, dancing, or painting a picture. We shouldn’t constantly live in some imaginary existence, but using our imagination in some way can be incredibly healthy and emotionally relieving. A healthy imagination, in my honest opinion, is a crucial component to mental health and living a meaningful life.

I believe that when we participate in art or other creative activities, we simultaneously change the way we think about ourselves and our world. We begin to recognize that we are participators in this game of life. Life is not just something that happens to us, but something that we also create for ourselves. And by engaging in art and creativity, we feel more capable in taking control of our thoughts, emotions, actions, and life in general. Being creative empowers us.

Interestingly, there is some empirical evidence that shows a relationship between mental illness and creativity. Perhaps some of this is due to the unconventional thinking of those with mental illness. But I also think creativity is a natural coping mechanism. If people with mental illness are more likely to suffer than those without mental illness, art and creativity is something that the mentally ill would be naturally drawn to in order to manage their condition.

But, in truth, I think most of us are naturally drawn to some form of creativity. There may even be a hunger for it, and when that hunger isn’t satisfied I think our lives become drastically less meaningful and less satisfying.

The moral of this post is to embrace your ability to create new meaning in your life. And in my opinion art is one of the absolute best ways to do this. If you don’t already have a creative hobby, I suggest starting one. Don’t have the time? Make room for it, especially if you are in need of an emotional boost.

I personally engage in creative ways by posting on this blog, taking photographs, writing scripts for movies, and composing songs on my computer. I can’t imagine how much less fulfilling my life would be without hobbies like this. They make a big difference, they help me love life more.

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P – Positive Emotions – experiencing joy and pleasure.

E – Engagement (or flow) – being consciously involved in our activities.

R – Relationships – having enjoyable and supportive interactions with others.

M – Meaning – creating a purposeful narrative about our lives.

A – Accomplishments – completing our goals and following our core values.

Happiness: More than just positive feelings.

All aspects of “PERMA” represent certain components of happiness, but according to Seligman not every one is necessary to live a flourishing life. In a recent interview with TIME, Seligman was quoted as saying:

“One of the things psychologists used to say was that if you are depressed, anxious or angry, you couldn’t be happy. Those were at opposite ends of a continuum. I believe that you can be suffering or have a mental illness and be happy — just not in the same moment that you’re sad.

What convinced me, actually, when I first went into the positive psychology field about 15 years ago, was this: I thought that the correlation between being depressed and happy would be -1.0. [In lay terms, that means they're opposite; you can't be both.]

There are about 20 studies and the correlation is only -0.2. There’s plenty of room to both be depressed and have high positive emotion — and not be bipolar.

We’re trying to do something liberating by saying even if you [are depressed], you don’t get consigned to the hell of unhappiness. You can have meaning, accomplishment, engagement and good relationships, even if you are dull on the positive affect side.”

These ideas resonate very deeply with a lot of the content I write here at The Emotion Machine. For example, just a couple days ago I wrote an article “Depression: The Yin of Happiness,” which tries to point out that certain bouts of depression can even be beneficial toward long-term happiness. Depression can drive us to discover a deeper understanding of ourselves; and while positive affect may be temporarily diminished, there are still opportunities to extract meaning and strengthen the story of our lives.

Take Viktor Frankl for example, a psychiatrist and holocaust survivor who suffered tremendously harsh conditions while in concentration camps in Nazi Germany. Frankl concluded through his experiences that even under the most wretched circumstances, an individual can still find fulfillment in life by creating meaning in their lives. Even suffering can be meaningful, and being able to persist through suffering is in-itself a kind of triumph.

Similarly, Seligman is now spending a lot of his time applying PERMA theory to the U.S. military in order to reduce rates of PTSD. He is teaching soldiers how to become more resilient and optimistic, and in many cases individuals experience tremendous growth from their painful experiences (there is now an emerging term for this psychological phenomenon: post-traumatic growth). Apparently, the existentialist philosopher Nietszche may have been right when he said, “That which does not kill us often makes us stronger.”

The main point here is that one does not need to always be experiencing great pleasure or joy to necessarily find fulfillment or improve the state of their lives. Happiness may be just as much dependent on our subjective view of circumstances as the circumstances themselves. Seligman’s PERMA theory is well-informed of this truth.

Planning on the future, not dwelling on the past.

One key component in Seligman’s latest research is the idea of prospection, the act of looking forward into the future, rather than just focusing on aspects of our past.

According to Seligman:

“The basic rock bottom premise of psychology for the last 150 years is that we’re driven by our past. Positive psychology has come to convince me that we’re drawn into the future.

I’m very interested in what is called “prospection.” As we’re talking now, what you’re doing is thinking about how you can write this up, whether to use or reject what I’m saying now. Lots of human activity is making mental simulations about the future, [or prospection]. I’ve been writing something on the ubiquity of prospection and arguing that the basic premise that humans are driven by past is wrong.

I’m all for past influences, the question is whether they are deterministic. Freud and the behaviorists argue that what we are at any given moment is billiard balls whose past determines our future course. That doesn’t take into account that we are forever generating internal representations of positive futures and choosing among them.”

The big lesson here? The past is in the past, and you have a choice right here and right now to envision a better future and begin to take small steps to accomplish that future. This act of positively and constructively looking forward may be one of the most important tools we have to achieving a flourishing life.

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This is a classic case of the “things could be worse” argument. Of course as a kid you would always shrug it off and think, “Yeah, but this isn’t Africa!” However, as it turns out, Mom and Dad might have been sharing an important pearl of wisdom that night at the dinner table.

According to the book A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy, Stoicism (a philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early 3rd century BC) used to teach a similar mentality about life. The Stoics believed that by freeing oneself from desire one could live a happier lifestyle.

The Stoics would frequently and vividly image worse case scenarios, such as the death of a child, financial catastrophe, or ruined health. And by doing this the Stoics believed you could learn how to better appreciate what you already have, as well as curb your appetite for more material goods, more social status, or more of whatever object it is that you desire.

This process of “negative visualization” can seem counter-intuitive in a society where self-help books are filled to the brim with the opposite advice: stay positive and remain focused on your desires. I have to admit that I too have fallen into the trap of focusing too much on what I want and not enough on what I already have. By imagining ways that my life could be substantially worse, I can greater appreciate everything that is right in front of me.

Most mistaken the word “stoic” to mean “unmoved” or “unemotional.” But this is only half true. Stoicism teaches you to shown concern only to what is in your control, mainly your actions and your thoughts, but to show apathy or indifference toward what you can’t control. Worrying about things that are outside your sphere of influence is often a waste of time and at worst self-destructive. Stoicism aims to free individuals from these fictional responsibilities that we often create from excessive rumination on grief, fear, desire, and self-pity.

Negative visualization is one technique the Stoics use to free themselves from excessive desire. We don’t always have control over where we are in life, but we do have control over how we react to those circumstances. By consciously saying to ourselves “things could be worse,” we become much more accepting and grateful for the cards we have been dealt. Sure we should rejoice in fortune when it comes our way, but wishful thinking for future pleasure and prosperity only distracts us from living with content in the present.

Stoicism’s aim is to define the boundaries of our self-control. Where are the limits of cosmic determinism and human free will? The one aspect of life Stoics widely agree is subject to our volition (or prohairesis) is how we view our own life. Epictetus said, “Man is disturbed not by things, but by the views he takes of them.”

Our emotions are largely based on the perspective we take. If we look at our life and constantly create new wants and desires, we will always be one step further from achieving happiness. It is precisely the concept of “seeking happiness” that makes it unobtainable – because if we can’t be happy today, what makes us think we can be happy tomorrow? Stoicism believes we already have all the resources we need to be happy and by looking at life from an alternative perspective we can overcome these destructive tendencies by finding happiness here and now, unconditionally.

Buddha’s teachings bare a striking resemblance to Stoicism, in the sense that both teach a kind of “detachment” from the ebb and flow of life. It is this indifference or equanimity that allows us to perceive the bigger picture and live with greater gratitude. Professor, author, and philosopher Corey Anton does a wonderful job describing this “grateful indifference” in the YouTube video below. He mentions how “grateful indifference” can seem like a paradoxical concept; however, the indifference isn’t a “life’s a bitch, deal with it” attitude, but instead a way of acknowledging the areas of life beyond your control, being indifferent to those areas of life, and realigning yourself with what is in your natural capabilities and free will. Regardless of the spontaneous events that happen to us day in and day out, we need to focus on what we can personally change.

“Whatever life’s gift is, it’s a gift that gave some things under your power, but not everything. And [you should] be happy with that.”

The goal of Stoicism clearly isn’t to make the world perfect or to raise everything to the status of divinity. In fact, not all Stoics believed in God, but those who did saw the mind’s ability to create meaning as only fragments of divinity, but never the whole thing. The key concept here (and this relates back to the “things could be worse” argument) is that it is better to have some divinity – in other words, some creative control over our existence – than to have none at all. How we respond to what we can control is the ultimate test in life.

Stoicism – The First Cognitive Therapy?

Stoicism had a profound influence on Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck, two psychologists from Penn State University who influenced the emergence of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Both CBT and Stoicism focus on similar theories about happiness and well-being, including self-discovery, self-control, and learning to treat the ebb and flow of life with a sense of inner peace and equanimity.

In his book The Philosophy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, British psychologist Donald Robertson discusses these compelling parallels between CBT and ancient Greek philosophy. In the video below you can watch Robertson discuss some of the core tenets of Stoicism, how it seeks to define the boundaries of the self (much like mindfulness does in CBT), and how our attachment to external conditions is often the cause of our anxieties.

Another common component in both CBT and Stoicism is the use of reason to discover faulty thinking that could lead to irrational behavior. By being more mindful of our thought patterns we can become better at correcting this faulty thinking, sometimes called “cognitive restructuring,” and we can thus better avoid those thought patterns in the future. Through the diligent use of contemplation and reason we can gradually change our perspective on the world toward something more practical and effective. The Stoics were huge advocates of this reason-based approach.

Exercise: Identify one desire you could do without.

We all have certain things we are too dependent on. These are often the sources of our unhappiness. We don’t feel satisfied unless we get our fix, just like a drug, and when we can’t get the object of our desire we are left anxious and needy.

Try this: identify one desire that you find your happiness too dependent on. First spend a minute thinking about the worst-case scenario that your desire could lead to. For example, maybe you like gambling. If so imagine how awful life would be if you gambled away everything you owned. Be thankful that this hasn’t happened to you. Now, with that insight in mind, imagine what life would be like if you quit gambling altogether. How might your world improve? Perhaps you’d have more money to save for retirement or more time to spend with your kids.

This kind of perspective-taking can give you a clearer view of your actions and what really matters to your life in the long-run. By thinking of the worst case scenario you can better appreciate where you are. And by thinking at the other extreme you can gain insight into making wiser decisions for your future.

Remember, your perspective and thoughts are some of the few things you have control over, so make sure you exercise that ability on a daily basis.

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