Roots of Flourishing: Recent Episodes
Christopher J. Lisanti, MD
We explore the big picture of our humanity through medical knowledge, philosophical reasoning, and theological insights leading to a better understanding of human flourishing.
This episode concludes our examination of the spiritual dimension by analyzing common errors.
Error #1: Mistaking the social for the spiritual. We think the religious service with its liturgy and building or obedience to social norms are the spiritual dimension. Religious service attendance and doing the good and avoiding the evil should be encouraged. However, to be complete, it needs to work towards the transcendent good, true, and beautiful along with a relationship with God in the spiritual dimension. We need to live multi-dimensionally.
Error #2: An incomplete understanding of the spiritual. Focusing inordinately on transcendent truths can ruin relationships and promote pride if it is not closely wedded to the virtues especially love and a relationship with God. Intellectual humility is needed. Remember only God completely knows the truth. Likewise, focusing on the good without the truth or a relationship with God can lead to either harsh judgmentalism (justice focused) or sappy sentimentalism (focused on a poorly defined and emotionally driven understanding of love). Love is desiring the good for someone while doing it in a manner consistent with 1st Corinthians 13.
Error #3: Self-transcendence is the vital means to escape our psychologic dimension and embrace another dimension. Self-transcendence is the metaphorical vehicle that takes you to another dimension but should not be confused with the destination. Self-transcendence into the biologic includes yoga, chanting mantras, and breathing-focused techniques while acts into the social include being absorbed by nature, feeling another person’s pain or joy, or an activity where you enter a state of flow (aka engagement). Being totally focused on the transcendent (the good, the true, the beautiful, and God Himself) is the definition of being in the spiritual dimension.
ReferencesA Pilgrim’s Guide to the Spirit Filled Life by Pastor Sean Azzaro
Spirituality, religiousness, and mental health: A review of the current scientific evidence by Lucchetti, Koenig, and Granero Lucchetti
How and How Not to be Happy by Professor J. Budziszewski
Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization by Professor Brad Wilcox
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
Second episode of two parts on the spiritual dimension. Humans appear designed to pursue knowledge and particularly knowledge of the sacred or transcendent. Defining the spiritual dimension as things that are transcendently good, true, and beautiful, and God Himself is robust for four reasons: 1) it distinguishes the spiritual dimensions from the other three dimensions, 2) these four areas all work harmoniously together, 3) it distinguishes humans from the rest of creation, and 4) it reflects the nature and character of God.
The spiritual dimension consists of things that are transcendently good, true, and beautiful, and ultimately God Himself. All these areas in the spiritual dimension are essential and work harmoniously together to promote human flourishing and fulfill the two greatest commandments: to love God and love our neighbor as our self.
The good consists of the virtues to include the four cardinal virtues (courage, temperance, prudence, and justice) along with the three theological virtues (faith, hope, and love). All the virtues work together and are required.
The true addresses transcendent truths about the nature of creation, humanity, and God. We need to humbly but firmly hold on to transcendent truths so that the virtues correctly select the right means and ends (preferably the basic goods of life, health, work, play, marriage, friendship, knowledge, esthetic experience, personal integrity, and harmony with the Divine).
The beautiful includes things and stories that resonate deeply amongst people across different cultures and times. These include works of art, architecture, and literature, but also creation itself. The story of Jesus reflects the most beautiful person in the most beautiful story ever told.
A relationship with God is essential as the source and standard of all that is good, true, and beautiful. This relationship also grounds humans in the imperative of love and guards us from disordering the goods or turning them into idols which would harm ourselves and others.
The transcendent good, true, and beautiful also is a capability that humans uniquely have in creation and share with God Himself. Thus, this definition of the spiritual further helps to understand the nature of humanity versus the rest of creation.
ReferencesThe Spiritual Brain: Science and Religious Experience by Dr. Andrew Newberg
The Awakened Brain: The New Science of Spirituality and Our Quest for an Inspired Life by Dr. Lisa Miller
New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional by Paul David Tripp
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
First episode of two parts on the spiritual dimension. Humans appear designed to pursue knowledge and particularly knowledge of the sacred or transcendent. Defining the spiritual dimension as things that are transcendently good, true, and beautiful, and God Himself is robust for four reasons: 1) it distinguishes the spiritual dimensions from the other three dimensions, 2) these four areas all work harmoniously together, 3) it distinguishes humans from the rest of creation, and 4) it reflects the nature and character of God.
The spiritual dimension consists of things that are transcendently good, true, and beautiful, and ultimately God Himself. All these areas in the spiritual dimension are essential and work harmoniously together to promote human flourishing and fulfill the two greatest commandments: to love God and love our neighbor as our self.
The good consists of the virtues to include the four cardinal virtues (courage, temperance, prudence, and justice) along with the three theological virtues (faith, hope, and love). All the virtues work together and are required.
The true addresses transcendent truths about the nature of creation, humanity, and God. We need to humbly but firmly hold on to transcendent truths so that the virtues correctly select the right means and ends (preferably the basic goods of life, health, work, play, marriage, friendship, knowledge, esthetic experience, personal integrity, and harmony with the Divine).
The beautiful includes things and stories that resonate deeply amongst people across different cultures and times. These include works of art, architecture, and literature, but also creation itself. The story of Jesus reflects the most beautiful person in the most beautiful story ever told.
A relationship with God is essential as the source and standard of all that is good, true, and beautiful. This relationship also grounds humans in the imperative of love and guards us from disordering the goods or turning them into idols which would harm ourselves and others.
The transcendent good, true, and beautiful also is a capability that humans uniquely have in creation and share with God Himself. Thus, this definition of the spiritual further helps to understand the nature of humanity versus the rest of creation.
References
The Spiritual Brain: Science and Religious Experience by Dr. Andrew Newberg
The Awakened Brain: The New Science of Spirituality and Our Quest for an Inspired Life by Dr. Lisa Miller
New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional by Paul David Tripp
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
This is the final lectures on the challenges of the digital revolution on our humanity where we discuss its impact on the spiritual dimension.
All aspects of the spiritual dimension can be harmed by the digital revolution. The spiritual dimension includes the Good (the virtues), the True and the Beautiful while culminating in our relationship with God who is ultimately the summation of everything that is Good, True and Beautiful.
The Good: as we saw in the prior episode, it promotes vices such as anger and pride while inhibiting the virtues through lack of in person interactions.
The True: limitless access to knowledge can include false knowledge. As we saw in our last episode, we all have biases and bias confirmation along with the false consensus effect that is dramatically increased through the echo chambers of the digital world all which can prevent us from seeing both truth in this world and the transcendent Truth of the spiritual dimension.
The Beautiful: the digital world with its focus on the visual sense reinforces a decades long fascination and idolatry of superficial or external beauty or attractiveness. This prioritizes the external while downplaying the importance of having a beautiful soul.
Harmony with the Divine: the limitless distractions that pander to our psychologic desires decreases our time both alone and with God. Blaise Pascal opined that “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Our endless “doing” is preventing us from “being” and thus places our humanity in an imbalanced state that prevents us from nurturing our souls, enhancing our brain capabilities, or thinking of others (either other people or God) before our own desires. By spending so much time in the psychologic dimension, it thus limits our time in the other dimensions providing fewer opportunities for transformational relationships either with others or more importantly with God.
References
Distraction Sickness by Andrew Sullivan
Digital Media Technology and Your Spiritual Life: An Uneasy Alliance by Laurel Dovich
Technology and the Soul: The Spiritual Lessons of Digital Distraction by Joshua Hochshild
What Jesus Said About the Importance of Solitude by Bob Hostetler
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
This is the second of two lectures on the social harms by the digital revolution.
In the pre-digital world, we desired and sought out relations with those that we had common beliefs and interests; however, the degree of homogeneity of those beliefs and interests was limited by the potential number of people we could interact with. We also had access to limited information which prevented many of our beliefs from going very deep. The breadth of values that we held to be vital was also limited due to lack of reinforcement and/or exposure by those in the culture. Finally, we had many more in-person interactions which provided a greater richness to our communication while also promoting empathy thus preventing us from being overly harsh all the while reinforcing the virtues of love and temperance.
In the digital world, we still desire and seek out people with shared beliefs and interests, but due to the limitless number of people we can easily find greater homogeneity of beliefs and thoughts and thus we now expect and even demand rigid conformity. Limitless information and the echo chamber effect reinforce our viewpoints through the phenomenon of bias confirmation thus deepening more of our beliefs and thoughts. The media, politicians, and influencers now use the digital platform as a vehicle for promoting more things as vital to our humanity thus broadening the number of things that people feel to be nonnegotiable in their relationships and at the same time increasingly demonizing those who hold different views. The limited nature of the digital world decreases our ability to regularly see and hear the critical nonverbal aspect of our communication thus limiting both the message and our empathy. This sets the stage for more vulnerable narcissists to become cyberbullies while many bystanders join in through the “bandwagon” effect. Anger and pride are being stoked and reinforced in many people while everyone is experiencing greater anxiety over the threat of being cancelled all leading to increasing polarization and social division.
References
How Cancel Culture Psychology and Toxic Tribalism Impact Young Adult Mental Health by the Newport InstituteSuperbia: The Perils of Pride. The Power of Humility by Dr. Steve Willing
Social Media Is Killing Your Friendships by Jennifer Chesak
Has Social Media Ruined The Idea Of Friendship? by Ira Bedzow
Media Madness: The Corruption of Our Political Culture by James Bowman
What Are The Mental Health Effects of Cancel Culture? by Refocus
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This is the first of two lectures on the social harms by the digital revolution. The digital world has led to two main features: we ignore the people in front of us and bully those we don’t see. We will address the first of these two: ignoring the people in front of us and the harms it has on the basic goods of friendship and marriage.
We are either distracted or addicted to our digital world because of the unnatural immediacy and quantity of novel information and/or emotional rewards it provides. Real in-person relationships always develop more slowly and less predictably although provide the basis for some of the most meaningful experiences in life.
The solution is to live multi-dimensionally incorporating as many dimensions of our humanity as possible in all of our activities. Digital platforms can be a social experience through watching TV or movies together or through interactive video games.
Using too much digital technology is also correlated with poorer marriages. Likely this stems from difficult marriages where the spouses seek and receive rewards in the digital world thus circumventing opportunities to do the difficult but again ultimately rewarding work of improving their relationship.
Internet pornography results in nearly double the rate of divorce. Pornography not only results in unrealistic and harmful expectations of the person using it but also harms the psychological well-being of the person not using it through feelings of inadequacy leading to less sexual intimacy.
The path forward include sane boundaries on digital technology. Digital-free times such as dinner time and digital-free places such as bedrooms are a great start. Pornography users can seek help through internet filters, a good friend with access to their browsing history and prayer from them in addition to prayer to and a transformational relationship with God.
References
Gazzaley + Rosen The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World
Elayne Allen Let’s Stigmatize Smartphones
Wendy Wang and Michael Toscano More Scrolling, More Marital Problems
Samuel Perry and Cyrus Schleifer Till Porn Do Us Part? A Longitudinal Examination of Pornography Use and Divorce
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
3rd part on the digital revolution looking at biologic harms. Key brain aspects include networks, the neurotransmitter dopamine, and mirror neurons. 4 networks. 1) executive control network (ECN): decision making and self-regulation. 2) salience network (SN): filters external and internal stimuli. 3) default mode network (DMN): activated when not engaged in a task. Includes ideas of the self and others (aka social cognition or mentalizing). 4) task positive network: active in tasks.
Neurotransmitters help neurons communicate. The neurotransmitter dopamine drives reward centers. Mirror neurons (MN) fire when a person acts or observes someone performing the same act and are important in perceptions of emotions and empathy. These structures are imbalanced and not harmonious in psychologic disorders and addictions.
Digital technology unnaturally brings a large quantity and high frequency of novel information or stimuli to reward centers. This overload can lead to addiction manifested by anxiety and obsessive technology checking behaviors.
In addiction, the DMN thinks too much about “me” and not enough on others. Addiction decreases the DMN’s connections to the ECN leading to impulsive behavior and poor long-term goal prioritization. The SN wrongly prioritizes external and/or internal addictive cues. Dopamine receptors are down regulated resulting in need for more stimulation. MN's connectivity likely decreased with less social recognition and empathy.
ReferencesAnna Lembke Dopamine nation + interview
Zhang + Volkow Brain default mode network dysfunction in addiction-what addiction does to our brains
Gazzaley + Rosen The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World
Review Mirror neurons 30 years later
Dopamine, Smartphones & You-how our brains are manipulated
Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics articles: Associations Between Infant Screen Use, Electroencephalography Markers, and Cognitive Outcomes + Association of Habitual Checking Behaviors on Social Media With Longitudinal Functional Brain Development
Kurt Thompson Anatomy of the Soul
Ronald Siegel The Science of Mindfulness
Is Internet Pornography Causing Sexual Dysfunctions? A Review
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
3rd part on the digital revolution looking at biologic harms. Key brain aspects include networks, the neurotransmitter dopamine, and mirror neurons. 4 networks. 1) executive control network (ECN): decision making and self-regulation. 2) salience network (SN): filters external and internal stimuli. 3) default mode network (DMN): activated when not engaged in a task. Includes ideas of the self and others (aka social cognition or mentalizing). 4) task positive network: active in tasks.
Neurotransmitters help neurons communicate. The neurotransmitter dopamine drives reward centers. Mirror neurons (MN) fire when a person acts or observes someone performing the same act and are important in perceptions of emotions and empathy. These structures are imbalanced and not harmonious in psychologic disorders and addictions.
Digital technology unnaturally brings a large quantity and high frequency of novel information or stimuli to reward centers. This overload can lead to addiction manifested by anxiety and obsessive technology checking behaviors.
In addiction, the DMN thinks too much about “me” and not enough on others. Addiction decreases the DMN’s connections to the ECN leading to impulsive behavior and poor long-term goal prioritization. The SN wrongly prioritizes external and/or internal addictive cues. Dopamine receptors are down regulated resulting in need for more stimulation. MN's connectivity likely decreased with less social recognition and empathy.
ReferencesAnna Lembke Dopamine nation + interview
Zhang + Volkow Brain default mode network dysfunction in addiction-what addiction does to our brains
Gazzaley + Rosen The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World
Review Mirror neurons 30 years later
Dopamine, Smartphones & You-how our brains are manipulated
Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics articles: Associations Between Infant Screen Use, Electroencephalography Markers, and Cognitive Outcomes + Association of Habitual Checking Behaviors on Social Media With Longitudinal Functional Brain Development
Kurt Thompson Anatomy of the Soul
Ronald Siegel The Science of Mindfulness
Is Internet Pornography Causing Sexual Dysfunctions? A Review
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
2nd of 5-part series on the digital revolution. Today we look at the psychologic harms.
Expressive individualism sets the background that already drives us more into the psychologic. This overemphasis on our thoughts, emotions, and desires leads to narcissism. This preoccupation with self-referential thinking or thinking about “me” leads to unhappiness.
Silicon Valley exploits this turn to the psychologic by exploiting our mechanisms for producing positive emotions. Their techniques take advantage of an unnatural environment overwhelming our neurobiology resulting in boredom and anxiety over “fear of missing out” on the next positive emotion served up by digital technology. Although positive emotions are beneficial, we need all of PERMA (P: positive emotions, E: engagement, R: relationships, M: meaning, and A: accomplishment) to flourish. Digital technology increasingly provides positive emotions unhinged from these other essentials.
The psychologic is now in overdrive. We are increasingly out of balance, not working in harmony, and neglecting/harming the basic goods. This is a root cause of our mental health issues.
Social media, video games, and pornography are great threats. Social media is harmful especially to children and adolescents. Videogames drive us deeper into the psychologic isolating us from our other dimensions and can lead to addiction. Finally, pornography panders to psychologic desires dissociated from social, biologic, or spiritual goods. Internet pornography has led to alarming rates of sexual dysfunction through distorted expectations and addiction.
We must moderate our time and engagement with these technologies. We must strive for balance and harmony and promote the basic goods. Self-transcending our psychologic and fully engaging our other 3 dimensions is essential to restoring balance that the digital technology continually threatens.
ReferencesExpressive individualism references in episode 3
Gazzaley and Rosen’s The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World highlights our neurobiology and psychology
Clare Morell’s How Digital Media Helped Shape the “Modern Self” reviews expressive individualism and digital technology
Joshua Pauling’s Modern Man Is Psychologized, Sexualized, Politicized—and Digitized explains how the digitized man is not whole
Ronald Siegel’s The Science of Mindfulness: A Research-Based Path to Well-Being reviews data supporting mindfulness
Marty Seligman’s Flourish explains PERMA
Trevor Haynes’ Dopamine, Smartphones & You: A battle for your time shows how our brains are manipulated
Surgeon General’s Advisory Social Media and Youth Mental Health is a wakeup call
Elayne Allen’s Let’s Stigmatize Smart Phones advocates for public change of our behavior
Internet pornography harms in Dr. Brian Park's Is Internet Pornography Causing Sexual Dysfunctions? A Review with Clinical Reports
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
This is the first part of a five-episode series on the challenges that the digital revolution pose for our humanity. This episode will provide a general framework to analyze the effects of tools and specifically the digital revolution regarding our human flourishing.
The analysis begins with assessing the depth and breadth of a tool’s impact on us. The digital revolution is widespread globally while at the same time we now spend a substantial portion of our lives interacting with it. Additionally, the technology now vies for our attention through a myriad of alerts and other mechanisms to capture our attention. This signals a substantial increase in the ability of the tool (digital technology) to impact our lives.
Our framework for critically analyzing whether any tool to include the digital ones is helping or harming our human flourishing is by looking at it through the lens of whether it is leading to better balance and harmony with promotion of the basic goods. The symptoms of our skyrocketing mental health issues provide solid evidence that something is amiss, and the evidence is mounting that the digital revolution is accelerating these problems by driving us to be more out of balance by causing us to focus more and more on our psychologic dimension to the neglect of the other three (biologic, social, and spiritual) while also harming the basic goods.
References
Two essays in Public Discourse are helpful to understanding the philosophical background of this challenge.Joshua Pauling’s essay entitled “Modern Man Is Psychologized, Sexualized, Politicized—and Digitized” explains how the digitized man is not an integrated embodied whole thus resulting in the myriad of problems we now see.Joshua Hochschild wrote “Technology and the Soul: The Spiritual Lessons of Digital Distraction” where he explores how the digital world is changing our understanding of ourselves again to our detriment. E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
Join me in the last of a two-part conversation with college student Micah Allen. This episode continues our discussion of human flourishing from both philosophical and theological perspectives. We introduce three philosophers and theologians Soren Kierkegaard, Marcus Aurelius, and R.C. Sproul in addition to referencing previously mentioned authors Viktor Frankl and Albert Wolters. The conversation focuses on redeeming a proper understanding of the individual and also of an ascetic life. We also discuss the role of suffering in our lives and how that can lead to post-traumatic growth and a furtherance of our virtues and character.
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
Join me in the first of a two-part conversation with college student Micah Allen as we discuss human flourishing in the college experience and beyond. This wide ranging discussion covers issues within college from Micah's perspective as a resident assistance to general thinking of human flourishing from both theological and philosophical perspectives.
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
The last of a four-episode series on redeeming work that discusses how ideological intrusion into our work can degrade, dilute, and even distort the good of our work. Finally, we discuss the one area of positive enhancement (promoting engagement or flow) that the institution contributes to our work.
Ideology can be defined as a set of political beliefs or a set of ideas that characterize a particular culture. Although ideology can degrade and dilute the good of work, its greatest threat is in distorting it by turning the specific work into something else to pursue another goal. Historically, the ideology of communism adversely affected the good of work by distorting all work to conform to various ideological claims. This led to fatal results due to unprepared armies, poor quality products, and food shortages. Today, the sexual revolution, political agendas, consumerism, and wokeism all have adversely impacted the good of work in many fields. Examples of journalism, education, and medicine demonstrate distortion by one or more of these ideologies by forcing them to pursue other goals. These other goals now harm the internal good or excellence of each profession while simultaneously increasing interpersonal tension amongst workers, and harming society coinciding with decreasing trust within society towards each profession.
The institution should strive to adequately match the talents of the workers with the tasks at hand knowing that the talents and tasks can change over time. The institution should neither want a bored worker nor a stressed-out worker. Increasing workers’ abilities through additional training and then giving them commensurate levels of greater responsibility and/or more challenging tasks is essential for growth and fulfillment in our work leading ideally to greater time spent in “engagement” or “flow.” Ideas such as giving employees side project or innovation time off time to work on projects that they find interesting while on company time has shown to decrease burnout and increase job satisfaction.
References
A Time to Build by Yuval Levin is a key read for understanding the healthy role that our institutions should play while he convincingly argues that our current institutions are not healthy which is adversely affecting our society. An NPR interview hits the high points of his book.
Website on Communism and Computer Ethics by four Stanford graduates discussing Work Ethic and Motivation
Wikipedia has a nice discussion on Lysenkoism
Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcy’s book How Now Shall We Live is a classic book that responds to different worldviews contrasting them with a Christian worldview. An entire chapter is dedicated to the outsized effects that the sexual revolution has on our worldview. A 41-minute video reviews the book.
Carl Trueman’s book Strange New World is an excellent introduction to expressive individualism while his book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self is a deeper exploration. There are multiple interviews and lectures with Carl Tru
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
The third of a four-episode series on redeeming work that introduces three areas of harm (money, bureaucracy, and ideology) and one area of positive enhancement (promoting engagement or flow) that the institution contributes to our work. The three harms degrade, dilute, and/or distort our work.
The disordered love or prioritization of money can either be from an individual or institutional perspective. Paid work or employment is not a necessary condition of achieving the good of work; however, since we all need money this is the most common avenue and unfortunately is a source of problems within the psychologic dimension. Institutions should pay workers and reward them to include pay for excellence in work. Insufficient time and/or resources given to us by the institution can result in degrading the quality of our work resulting in moral injury to our personal integrity. Leaders need to measure outcomes that best reflect the excellence of our jobs while avoiding measures that perversely work against excellence.
Bureaucracy is now a hallmark of our increasingly complex modern society. Additional forms, requirements, and training seem to be ever increasing and, in many instances, quite distant to the actual work of making the good or providing the service. These additional requirements take time away from the primary job at hand resulting in dilution of work. Additionally, workers are frequently expected to maintain output despite increasing bureaucratic requirements thus leading to degradation of our work. Leaders must take a very critical view of any new bureaucratic requirements, and any essential ones should be streamlined and tailored to the needs of the workers including in person and just-in-time training whenever possible. One-size fits all training should be rejected. Computer-based training further isolates us socially leading to a degradation of our humanity while missing opportunities to enhance training.
References
A Time to Build by Yuval Levin is a key read for understanding the healthy role that our institutions should play while he convincingly argues that our current institutions are not healthy which is adversely affecting our society. An NPR interview hits the high points of his book.
Flourish by Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman
Margin by Dr. Richard Swenson is a great book revealing and reminding us of the dangers of a fast-paced life.
Creation Regained by Professor Albert M. Wolters. Brief review of the book here while a more technical and detailed one is here
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
The second of a four-episode series on redeeming work discusses the importance of loving people we work with and for while highlighting the fundamental key of the spiritual dimension.
The social aspect of our jobs is arguably the most important as it leads directly to more of the fruits of flourishing (three--meaning, positive relationships, and positive emotions) than loving our jobs for their own sake does (a single fruit--accomplishment). The impact that our work has on people is increasingly indirect due to the digital world, and thus we need to become more mindful and seek to tangibly connect with those we are serving and working with.
The spiritual dimension with its virtues and intrinsic spiritual practices is key to enabling us to love our work and those people in it. The virtue of selfless love is fundamental to loving others for their own sake. The virtue of hope brings about an optimism in our work that can become contagious leading to the joy filled workplaces we all desire. The spiritual practices of prayer, mindfulness, and gratitude all positively impact our human flourishing and need to be incorporated throughout our workday.
References
Flourish by Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman
The 5 Love Languages by Dr. Gary Chapman is a very helpful book to understanding how people feel love. Dr. Chapman’s website has a variety of good resources.
Colin L. Powell’s 13 rules of leadership I think are fundamentally rules for life as well.
A Time to Build by Yuval Levin is a key read for understanding the healthy role that our institutions should play while he convincingly argues that our current institutions are not healthy which is adversely affecting our society. An NPR interview hits the high points of his book.
David Brooks article The Moral Bucket List published in the New York Times is an important tonic to “the culture of the Big Me” and a call to look to and serve others.
Praxis’ A Rule of Life for Redemptive Entrepreneurs is a memorable and practical guide that can help us redeem our work.
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
This is the first of a four-episode series on redeeming work. The basic thesis is that we can redeem work only if we love the work we do for its own sake AND love those associated with our work—those we work with and work for. The first two episodes will focus on the individual while the last two will address the contributions that the institution plays.
Overall human flourishing both in and outside of work is a necessary precondition to redeeming work. Living a balanced, multidimensional harmonious life oriented to the basic goods is essential to give us the resiliency and equip us to love our work and love the people with it. The fast-paced lifestyle that most of us live needs to be reined in to restore balance. Restoring the concept of a sabbath rest is crucial to this.
The root of self-transcendence is vital for us to transcend our own thoughts, emotions, and desires—our attitudes--to embrace and love our work for its own sake and the people with it.
Work being a basic good is not only a philosophical but also a theological concept. God does work through creation while the work of Christ is a redeeming one. Our work should be either a creative or a redemptive work. Making new things or ideas are examples of the first while restoring or making broken things whole are examples of redemptive work.
Being mindful through our thoughts, speech, and action is important to ensure that we focus on the internal excellence of our work for its own sake and this mindfulness is an important counterweight to any lesser and potentially destructive goals.
References
Man’s Search for Meaning by Dr. Viktor Frankl. A nice summary is given in this link
Mike Rowe has a nice summary of his insight on this video while I got some of his quotes from a Forbes interview
Margin by Dr. Richard Swenson is a great book revealing and reminding us of the dangers of a fast-paced life.
Creation Regained by Professor Albert M. Wolters. Brief review of the book here while a more technical and detailed one is here
Article on intrinsic versus extrinsic goals by Drs. Vansteenkiste, Lens and Deci published in the journal “Educational Psychologist” in March of 2006
Flourish by Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
This episode we review the contributions of positive psychology to human flourishing by summarizing and analyzing Dr. Martin Seligman’s book “Flourish.” Positive psychology’s current contributions to understanding flourishing can be quickly summarized with the acronym PERMA (P: Positive emotions; E: Engagement or flow; R: Relationships—positive ones; M: Meaning outside oneself; A: Accomplishment for its own sake). One needs to have a combination or balance of all these to achieve human flourishing.
The root of self-transcendence directly leads to Engagement, Meaning, and Accomplishment while self-transcendence is a key factor in achieving positive relationships. Additionally, self-transcendence aids us to deal constructively or positively with all our emotions either positive or negative ones by enabling us to see how all these emotions can lead to personal growth in our virtues or the good.
The root of the spiritual dimension particularly the virtues of optimism or hope and self-control or temperance are highlighted and proven to have substantial positive effects on our biologic and social dimensions.
Lastly, we discuss how the roots of harmonious multi-dimensional living with an orientation to the basic goods can answer some of positive psychology’s most pressing questions. Those questions are: 1) how do we maximize our human flourishing, and 2) how can we ensure that we are truly achieving human flourishing not only subjectively but also objectively?
References
Flourish by Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman
Wikipedia has a nice review of positive psychology
Two additional books on happiness or human flourishing from two popular talk show hosts that have practical perspectives are Dennis Prager’s book Happiness is a Serious Problem and Hugh Hewitt’s The Happiest Life. Professor of government and philosophy J. Budziszewski’s book entitled How and How Not to be Happy chronicles why so many areas within our lives do not lead to happiness and argues for supreme happiness in seeing God.
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
We discuss the last criteria of how we can rightly order our four dimensions and promote the basic goods through the concept of mutual subordination. Mutual subordination is akin to self-transcendence but takes this notion out of the psychologic and rightly applies it to all dimensions and all the basic goods. No dimension or basic good can bring about its own end but is entirely dependent upon the other dimensions to bring about their end.
We review all four dimensions beginning with health where our biologic health is entirely dependent upon the other three dimensions to bring about their fulfillment while the body, in turn, is an integral part of fulfilling the other three dimensions’ ends. The psychologic and social are then analyzed concluding with the spiritual which we contend to be the ultimate in mutual subordination.
Quick summary of our six foundational episodes. The constituent elements our humanity are the four dimensions (biologic, psychologic, social, and spiritual) with the basic goods being the primary ends or goals of each dimension. The concepts of balance, harmony, self-transcendence, and mutual subordination describe how to best order each dimension and their interrelationships in order to bring about human flourishing.
References
The Spiritual Life and How to Be Attuned To It (whole text online) and The Spiritual Life and How to Be Attuned To It (book and translation quoted in podcast) by St. Theophan
What It Means to Be Human by O. Carter Snead
Carl Trueman’s book Strange New World is an excellent introduction to expressive individualism while his book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self is a deeper exploration. There are multiple interviews and lectures with Carl Trueman on the internet to include this one from Crossway.
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
This episode defines and lists the basic goods associated with each dimension which we should never harm and generally work towards promoting. Basic goods are goods or ends that should not be instrumental to another good. In other words, these should not be used to serve other ends. A list of basic goods includes life, health, knowledge, work, play, aesthetic experience, friendship, marriage, personal integrity, and harmony with the divine.
The biologic dimension includes life and health while friendship, marriage, work, and play reside in the social dimension. Harmony with the divine is solely in the spiritual dimension while knowledge and aesthetic experience may either be in the spiritual or the social depending upon whether it is transcendent or not. Personal integrity is left for the psychologic dimension and reflects a life well lived or the Greek word eudaimonia.
We get into trouble through the psychosocial dyad of dimensions where we mis-prioritize or disorder the goods. We make some instrumental goods basic goods while relegating other basic goods to instrumental status. This disordering of goods then puts things out of balance and since some basic goods are harmed this prevents them from working optimally together in harmony.
References
The Way of Medicine by Drs. Farr Curlin and Christopher Tollefsen
Practical Principles, Moral Truth, and Ultimate Ends by John M. Finnis, Germain Grisez and Joseph Boyle
This actual list of basic goods I use is from Christopher Tollefsen’s article in Public Discourse entitled Practical Reason, Basic Goods, and Natural Law
The relationship between human flourishing and money is extensively addressed by Ed Diener and Martin E.P. Seligman in their article Beyond Money: Toward an Economy of Well-Being and Ed Diener wrote a much shorter article summarizing their findings in his article Income and Happiness
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
This episode reviews the importance of harmony to our human flourishing. Harmony reinforces the notion that all the dimensions should not harm any other dimension but also that all the dimensions should work … together. The effects of multi-dimensional living incorporating three or even four of our dimensions into all our activities result in full integration, human flourishing, and completion of our humanity. Harms to a dimension result in dis-integration and a lack of flourishing. Moral injury is an example where a harm to a virtue usually justice can result in dis-integration and psychologic harms. Mindfully integrating three or four dimensions can be practically applied in nearly all of life’s activities including games, entertainment, and prayer which are all highlighted in this episode.
References
New England Journal Article entitled Early Palliative Care for Patients with Metastatic Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer
Dr. Harold Koenig and associates’ article in Military Medicine entitled Screening for Moral Injury: The Moral Injury Symptom Scale – Military Version Short Form
A Biblical Theology of Human Flourishing by Dr. Jonathan Pennington
Article by Peter Grinspoon, MD in Harvard Health Publishing entitled The Health Effects of Too Much Gaming
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
This episode explores the first of three criteria for human flourishing--balance. Balance is everywhere in the universe and should also be established in our lives. Balance amongst our four dimensions (biologic, psychologic, social, and spiritual) is essential for flourishing and we know that we are out of balance when we are not at peace. Balance amongst the dimensions has elements of both quantity and timing where we need to engage in biologic, social, and spiritual dimensions throughout the day in order to avoid the tyranny of our psychologic dimension. Practical applications include regular exercise and prayer/meditation that have been proven to reduce anxiety, stress, and depression.
References
The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
The Way of a Pilgrim
National Institutes of Mental Health Statistics
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/mental-illness#part_2632
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/any-anxiety-disorder
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/major-depression
Shanafelt and associates article in Mayo Clinic Proceedings Changes in Burnout and satisfaction with work-life integration in physicians and the general US working population between 2011 and 2020
Journal of American Medical Association Article Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
This episode uncovers the root of how we can know whether we are truly in another dimension or merely a psychologic bystander. By truly transcending our own thoughts, emotions, and desires, we can embrace the other which leads to both ours and other people's flourishing. When we self-transcend, then we love someone or something else for their own sake and not as an instrument to gratify our own desires.
We reviewed the three major pressures and the one root cause that keeps us from self-transcending. The pressures include: 1) it is not a habit many of us are trained in, 2) our consumer culture panders to our psychologic desires, and 3) the pressure of expressive individualism that is the zeitgeist of our culture drives us back to our psychologic desires. Lastly, the root cause is due to the effects of the Fall that harmed our relationships with the biologic, social (people and environment), and spiritual.
ReferencesHow We Love by Milan and Kay Yerkovich
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical Validation of Interventions by Dr. Marty Seligman and colleagues where they list six virtues with a total of 24 additional character strengths under one of the six virtues
A good series of lectures on the interplay of the brain and spiritual practices is by Dr. Andrew Newberg from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital available for purchase through the Great Courses entitled The Spiritual Brain: Science and Religious Experience
What It Means to Be Human by O. Carter Snead
A Shift in American Family Values Is Fueling Estrangement by Joshua Coleman in The Atlantic
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
In this introductory episode, we outline the four dimensions of our humanity that include the biologic, psychologic, social, and spiritual. These dimensions are all interrelated and in order to achieve full human flourishing need to be in balance, working in harmony, and mutual subordinate to one another. The spiritual is defined not as religious but as the transcendent. The transcendent includes the good, the true, and the beautiful, and ultimately God.
References:George Engel’s article: The Need for a New Medical Model: A Challenge for Biomedicine
Daniel Sulmasy's article: A Biopsychosocial-Spiritual Model for the Care of Patients at the End of Life
Virtue List Used in Podcast: Cardinal Virtues (courage, justice, prudence, and temperance) and Theological Virtues (faith, hope, and love)
Scientific Reports article: Alterations in Brain Structure and Amplitude of Low-frequency after 8 weeks of Mindfulness Meditation Training in Meditation-Naïve Subjects
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
This episode uncovers the root of how we can know whether we are truly in another dimension or merely a psychologic bystander. By truly transcending our own thoughts, emotions, and desires, we can embrace the other which leads to both ours and other people's flourishing. When we self-transcend, then we love someone or something else for their own sake and not as an instrument to gratify our own desires.
We reviewed the three major pressures and the one root cause that keeps us from self-transcending. The pressures include: 1) it is not a habit many of us are trained in, 2) our consumer culture panders to our psychologic desires, and 3) the pressure of expressive individualism that is the zeitgeist of our culture drives us back to our psychologic desires. Lastly, the root cause is due to the effects of the Fall that harmed our relationships with the biologic, social (people and environment), and spiritual.
ReferencesHow We Love by Milan and Kay Yerkovich
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical Validation of Interventions by Dr. Marty Seligman and colleagues where they list six virtues with a total of 24 additional character strengths under one of the six virtues
A good series of lectures on the interplay of the brain and spiritual practices is by Dr. Andrew Newberg from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital available for purchase through the Great Courses entitled The Spiritual Brain: Science and Religious Experience
What It Means to Be Human by O. Carter Snead
A Shift in American Family Values Is Fueling Estrangement by Joshua Coleman in The Atlantic
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
In this introductory episode, we outline the four dimensions of our humanity that include the biologic, psychologic, social, and spiritual. These dimensions are all interrelated and in order to achieve full human flourishing need to be in balance, working in harmony, and mutual subordinate to one another. The spiritual is defined not as religious but as the transcendent. The transcendent includes the good, the true, and the beautiful, and ultimately God.
References:George Engel’s article: The Need for a New Medical Model: A Challenge for Biomedicine
Daniel Sulmasy's article: A Biopsychosocial-Spiritual Model for the Care of Patients at the End of Life
Virtue List Used in Podcast: Cardinal Virtues (courage, justice, prudence, and temperance) and Theological Virtues (faith, hope, and love)
Scientific Reports article: Alterations in Brain Structure and Amplitude of Low-frequency after 8 weeks of Mindfulness Meditation Training in Meditation-Naïve Subjects
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
This episode explores the first of three criteria for human flourishing--balance. Balance is everywhere in the universe and should also be established in our lives. Balance amongst our four dimensions (biologic, psychologic, social, and spiritual) is essential for flourishing and we know that we are out of balance when we are not at peace. Balance amongst the dimensions has elements of both quantity and timing where we need to engage in biologic, social, and spiritual dimensions throughout the day in order to avoid the tyranny of our psychologic dimension. Practical applications include regular exercise and prayer/meditation that have been proven to reduce anxiety, stress, and depression.
References
The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
The Way of a Pilgrim
National Institutes of Mental Health Statistics
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/mental-illness#part_2632
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/any-anxiety-disorder
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/major-depression
Shanafelt and associates article in Mayo Clinic Proceedings Changes in Burnout and satisfaction with work-life integration in physicians and the general US working population between 2011 and 2020
Journal of American Medical Association Article Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com
In this introductory episode, we outline the four dimensions of our humanity that include the biologic, psychologic, social, and spiritual. These dimensions are all interrelated and in order to achieve full human flourishing need to be in balance, working in harmony, and mutual subordinate to one another. The spiritual is defined not as religious but as the transcendent. The transcendent includes the good, the true, and the beautiful, and ultimately God.
E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com