No Fun

The things I usually do for fun just aren’t fun anymore

Five Habits to Increase Creativity

It turns out that creativity is a skill. And like any skill, you can practice and get better at it. In fact, just learning about creativity and how it works can help. –Mark Manson, “5 Boring Ways to Become More Creative”


Four Ways Creative Hobbies Can Help You Flourish

“If we learn to embrace our own messy, creative selves,  we give others permission to do the same. We help create a world that  is more welcoming of the creative spirit, and we make it possible to find a greater connection with others and with ourselves in the process.” –Scott Barry Kaufman and Carolyn Gregoire, 10 Habits of Highly Creative People”


Interdependence Day

It’s ironic but totally healthy that we mark our nation’s independence with a celebration of dictatorship, interdependence, and e pluribus unum.


How to Get Satisfaction

If you expect to get $10 and get $100, you feel great. If you expect to get $100 and get $10, you feel disappointed. Your expectation changes your satisfaction. An average experience preceded by high expectations is a disappointment. An average experience preceded by low expectations is a delight. When liking and wanting are approximately the same, you feel satisfied. – James Clear, Atomic Habits


Judgment Mind at the Movies

Though I started watching the Academy Awards when I was a little kid, I don’t know if I ever enjoyed it. Looking at the experience through the lens of well-being and depression, I think it reveals a lot about how judgment makes us enjoy things less.


Avoiding Taxing Situations
The ultimate penalty for avoiding taxes is prison. The penalty for growing the list of things we avoid is a prison of our own making.


Taking Breaks!

After fifty-two consecutive Mondays of posting ideas for moving from depression to well-being, last week I found myself caught up in an internal struggle. I decided not to post. There’s a laundry list of reasons for taking breaks (and a few reasons to proceed with caution when we’re depressed).


Bibliotherapy: a Novel Cure

If your depression seems resistant to the usual therapies, Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin may have a novel cure for you: bibliotherapy.


Awe Walks Made Easy

Awe can be a powerful antidote to the apathy that arises from depression. Here are some ideas for finding it right outside your door.


7 Shocking Links Between Sleep and Depression

Shortly after you were born, your mother had a shocking conversation with her doctor about your unusual sleep habits.


How Holiday Treats Can Trick Us

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. But, like any holiday, the very anticipation that makes it a treat can also trick us.


Investigating Our Values

“There is no right or wrong, no good or bad, when it comes to values. What you value is what you value—end of story!” writes Russ Harris in The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living: A Guide to ACT. But, living our values can lead us either to depression or to well-being.


What’s My Motivation?

Last week, I found myself in a situation where I didn’t want to do anything, especially involving creating another username and  password and getting out my credit card. But I mustered the motivation to access the article through my library’s ProQuest account. Here’s why.


A Curious Path to Improved Concentration
Are you curious why concentration seems so difficult? What if it were as easy as binge-watching TV? An easy, mindful approach to improving concentration.


Sex Tips for Mental Well-Being

A quote from anthropologist Helen Fisher got me thinking about how sex impacts our well-being and depression. “I don’t think, honestly, we’re an animal that was built to be happy; we are an animal that was built to reproduce. I think the happiness we find, we make.”


Four Key Concepts for More Loving Relationships

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare’s character Lysander says, “The course of true love never did run smooth.” How well we negotiate relationships can mean the difference between depression and well-being. Susan Piver’s new book The Four Noble Truths of Love helps us navigate that course.


A Meaningless Meaningful Olympic Moment

An underrated aspect of depression is a prevailing sense that life is meaningless. When used the right way, this key insight can lead to mental well-being, inner peace, and outward empathy.