This summer, over 300,000 people gathered in Paris to watch the opening ceremony for the 2024 Olympics. People from all over the world came to witness a spectacle that included a stunning performance by Celine Dion, athletes parading down the Seine, playful nods to French culture with fashion, Marie Antoinette references, and traditional music filling the air.
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Several years ago, I had the opportunity to be a part of a global change summit organized by World Merit. Our team of change makers from around the world was tasked to create an action plan for one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set forth by the United Nations. The culmination of the nearly three-week experience was presenting these action plans at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. I chose to focus on goal #11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. I can still remember the excitement and nerves the first day of this experience as I met the teammates I would be working with for the next few weeks. We went around the circle and shared why we chose goal #11 and what the idea of community meant to us. A new friend, Wandile, from South Africa, shared with the group the Zulu word ubuntu which roughly translates to, “I am because you are.” This word and sentiment has stayed with me ever since and captures the reverence and the wisdom of community better than I could ever articulate myself.
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It is election season in the United States of America, causing excitement for some, trepidation for others, and perhaps even apathy for a few. It also means, when it comes to government, the public’s focus tends to be on two specific people: the presidential candidates from the major political parties rather than the nearly 22 million government workers who serve our communities in a variety of important functions, from health and safety to education and transportation and more. These workers are all too often part of a bureaucracy that does not get the positive attention—or credit—it deserves. So, it is a good time to remember how public service can take a backseat to politics, overshadowing the importance of the community impact and well-being of government workers beyond those in elected office, like the ones we encounter teaching our children, processing mail at our neighborhood post offices, ready to jump into action at our local fire departments, or picking up the trash from our curbs.
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In this article, Dr. Lomas explores the complexities and nuances of community and collective well-being and distinguishes it from the related topic of flourishing. Read on for some of his newest insights and personal musing about the importance and urgency to not only consider the culture and context characteristic of positive psychology’s third wave, but also to move beyond it.
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Ikigai (i-key-ga-ee) is a word that has been defined as “one’s reason for being” or “a life worth living.” This Japanese term comprises two characters – “life” (生き) and “to be worthwhile” (甲斐). The experience of ikigai is typically associated with engagement in meaningful experiences and activities to which one devotes effort, attention, and focus (Kumano, 2018). The origin of the term is traced to ikiru-kahi, itself a composite of the words “to be alive” and “worth.” Psychiatrist Mieko Kamiya (1966) is attributed as the first to popularize the term in her pioneering work Ikigai ni Tsuite (What makes our life worth living). Since then, numerous popular press books have been written about ikigai. Arguably the most popular is Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life (Garcia & Miralles, 2016), one of 2,000 books listed on Amazon about this concept of well-being. The popularity of the concept, particularly its association with longevity, has also been featured in an episode of the 2023 Netflix documentary Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones.
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As primals world beliefs researcher Jer Clifton once said during his Research Methods and Evaluations class, most research begins with an observation and a question. Without realizing it, my capstone project for the University of Pennsylvania Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) started with some observations that evolved into questions a few years before I officially began the program.
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About a decade ago, in my 30s, I found myself in the middle of a major personal breakdown. Having recently moved to New York City, I was far from family and friends and felt I had reached the end of my mental and physical capacities.
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One of the first things I noticed when I began to investigate positive psychology and, particularly, after I discovered the Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) program at the University of Pennsylvania, was the faces of its professors, practitioners, and the program’s alumni. Most of theirs were much lighter than my own.
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Although I didn’t yet know it, my journey with positive psychology started in 1982, when I was three years old. That year, I was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis (CF), a genetic, progressive disease that primarily affects the lungs and digestive system. At that time, there was little hope for people with CF. Many did not live to adulthood. Even today, there is no cure for the disease, and only 11% of the CF population is over the age of 40 (Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, n.d). In 1982, most parents of children diagnosed with CF were given the same message: Take your child home and love them hard because you probably won’t have them for long.
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Close your eyes for a moment. Picture yourself in the multiple spaces that you engage in daily, weekly, monthly, and annually. Consider your family, your circle of friends, your workplace, your community. In any of those places, do you feel othered? Othering is the practice of excluding a group of people due to characteristics that are different from the dominant group (Tarvainen, 2019). When you enter the world as a person with a physical disability, you are entering the world as an identifiable “other.”
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At work, I am known as the “tool” queen. Need a more efficient way to run a meeting? I have an agenda outline for that. Want to create a welcoming onboarding experience? I’ll send you my template. I have no shortage of tools in my toolkit.
Having a system or a way of doing things isn't always embraced by everyone I work with, but I swear, there’s a method behind my madness.
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When Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) program alumnae, Kirsten Calloway (C’23) and Margaret Greenberg (C’06), approached us about curating a MAPP Magazine issue focused on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA), we couldn’t have anticipated the twists and turns this issue would take. And yet, collaborating on this effort, watching the magic of the May issue unfold, and now, being among the first to announce the MAPP Alumni Association’s newly launched DEIA+ resource library has been a great honor and joy.
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In my prior career as a trust and estates attorney, I guided countless individuals through the process of deciding how to distribute their "stuff" after their deaths. Few clients welcome the need for estate planning. Like a visit to the dentist, drafting a will is often an obligatory but joyless experience. This is understandable—in addition to its expense and complexity, estate planning is inevitably accompanied by an unwelcome acknowledgment of one’s mortality and the solemn summarization of a lifetime of earnings into a few pages of text.
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In the heart of the financial world, where the pace is relentless and the stakes are high, I carved out a successful career that spanned continents and cultures. From the bustling streets of London to the mangrove of Abu Dhabi, my life in finance was a whirlwind of high-profile deals and the constant chase for the next big success. Amid the glamour and the adrenaline, however, lay a quest for deeper fulfillment—a yearning for purpose that transcended the allure of financial rewards and professional accolades.
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In the world of entrepreneurship, the journey is often romanticized as a path of relentless pursuit marked by a singular focus on success defined by financial wealth. However, this narrative seldom accounts for the dark side of entrepreneurship, which includes the challenges of burnout, uncertainty, and the constant pressure to outperform (Stephan, 2018).
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I have long had a passion for the plight of working mothers. You may think my choice of language too bold but having been a working mother for thirty years and a single working mother for six of those years, I understand how difficult the situation facing many working mothers can be. From my own experience and from talking with many working mothers over the last twelve years, I know they often sacrifice their own well-being in their efforts to provide the best they can for their family. But a burned-out, exhausted, unhappy working mother is neither the best worker nor the best mother.
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Throughout my life, I’ve found myself in moments of peace and oneness in nature. The 8,000 trees at Wellesley College gave me stability, courage, and connection in moments I felt the loneliest. The foreign desert landscape of Joshua Tree National Park reminded me of being wrapped in a blanket crocheted by my grandma. The crisp air, looming fog, and iconic Redwoods of Big Sur felt like the source of all life and love in the world. When I think about what matters most, I find myself back in these moments, existing in an often isolated place but filled with the sense that everything that ever was and ever will be was there all at once. I’ve felt the most at home in moments in the natural world—not when nature was the backdrop but when nature was the occasion and presented the opportunity to slow down and tune in.
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There’s a saying in my profession that more therapists are comfortable talking about sexuality than spirituality. If so, then I’m in the minority. I don’t care to know what goes on in your bedroom, but I do care what goes on in your soul. Interestingly, the same pattern of spirituality as taboo seems to play out among those seeking therapy. While the word “spirituality” has become more mainstream, individuals’ personal spiritual experiences and their willingness to talk about them (unlike their sexuality) has not. Often when I ask someone to tell me about their spiritual life, I hear, “I’m not religious,” or “I was raised Catholic but don’t practice anymore,” or “I’m culturally Jewish.” Even if I ask a general question on an intake form, such as “Is your spirituality or faith life important to you,” more often than not it is left blank.
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If you've chosen to read this, you may be among the millions of people across the globe curious about the use of psychedelics as a potential intervention in addressing mental health challenges and fostering human flourishing. Some have dubbed the resurgence of interest (and the accompanying hype bubble) as a psychedelic renaissance. For all that is being said about it in academic journals, popular media, social networks, and around dinner tables, we are still at that uncomfortable place in the scientific process where we have more questions than answers. Hopefully, the nine minutes you invest in reading this piece sheds some light into the fascinating world of psychedelic-assisted therapy (or PAT) and fans an ember of knowledge in your inquisitive mind.
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Dacher Keltner, PhD., is a researcher and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches and runs the Berkeley Social Interaction Laboratory. He has studied intrapersonal characteristics and functions of emotion and now focuses on how positive emotions, such as awe, compassion, desire, and pride shape an individual’s relationships, physical environment, and sources of pleasure. In this interview with Dr. Keltner, we spoke about the science of awe and about his latest book, Awe: The new science of everyday wonder and how it can transform your life.
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