Michael Mantell

Notice how so many people are “re-ing” these days? They’re rewiring, rebooting, reorganizing, renewing, refreshing, reaffirming, reassessing, and readjusting. I suggest it’s time to recant. Yes, recant your can’t. “Why can’t things ever go right, just once in my life?” “I’m such a ________.” “I’ll never be as good as ___________.” “Why do things never go my way?” “Why can’t I ever succeed, just once?” “What’s the point of trying? I’ll fail again. I’m cursed!” [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

President John F. Kennedy once observed, “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” Stress begins in the brain, in the way we think about our life. We are experts in creating our own stress. We aren’t expert in preventing, reversing or treating our own creation. This emotional education column may turn that around for you. [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

There is no escaping the wild, chaotic terrain of the wilderness of life. Resisting the notion that life is fickle, fighting the uncertainty of the wilds of natural life, demanding predictability and expectedness in an otherwise disordered and often confused civilization, are futile. Many seem to believe that we live in an empty, befuddling and often frightening wasteland, one made even more worrisome by COVID-19. [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

The question for you is, do YOU know your whole person, your personality traits, that you can draw on to help you live healthier, better? After all, if you are seeking the best in contemporary health care, you’d be wise to seek integrated medical health providers that treat all of you, that understand how your personality traits impact your attitudes and drive you toward a healthy lifestyle – or toward an unhealthy lifestyle. Let’s define “personality” as found in David C. Funder’s The Personality Puzzle “as an individual’s characteristic patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior, together with the psychological mechanisms—hidden or not—behind those patterns” [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

From a seemingly far separate world, business leadership, that isn’t at all detached from this topic, comes the concept of “conscious leadership.” This concept, with its key leadership group founded by Jim Dethmer and Diana Chapman, helps leaders bring their whole authentic selves, with total awareness, to their positions as partners, transformers and visionaries. But why only to corporate leadership? Isn’t this notion valuable for all, particularly during this time of forced separateness, when we are lacking “we” time? With the coronavirus pandemic that’s triggered so many reacting, not consciously responding, to daily confused medical advice, politically driven shutdowns and restrictions of life, uncertainty and lack of trust in our leaders, perhaps “conscious leadership” needs to apply to daily life by us all as we lead our own lives with authenticity, integrity, curiosity, mindfulness, and responsible openness. I call this “conscious loveship.” [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

Orison Swett Marden wrote in 1910, “Optimism is a builder. It is to the individual what the sun is to vegetation. It is the sunshine of the mind, which constructs life, beauty, and growth in everything within its reach. Our mental faculties grow and thrive in it just as the plants and trees grow and thrive in the physical sunshine. Pessimism is negative, it is the darkened dungeon which destroys vitality and strangles growth.” [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

If you believe Abraham Maslow, and I have no idea why you wouldn’t, then Robert Emmon’s quote of the well regarded humanistic psychologist may well resonate with you, “the most important learning lessons… were tragedies, deaths, and trauma… which forced change in the life-outlook of the person and consequently in everything that he did.” [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]

While coronavirus has killed, toppled, and impaired so many, there’s a far more mammoth plague that has disturbed our planet. The lack of self-love, self-care, and self-acceptance is linked to many physical and emotional conditions and infirmities, far too many to catalogue here. Self-acceptance could well be, heck it is, the starting place for all healing, particularly during the emotional trauma and anxiety triggered by COVID19. [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D.]

Okay, relax. I’m not suggesting burying your head in the sand or going into denial. I’ve spent much of my career working in TV news broadcasting, have hosted two podcasts, written blogs extensively, so I’m not indicting the media. I’m focusing on how to use news to improve your mood. [Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D]