Am I the intersection of points at which my thoughts and feelings interact with my culture, history, relationships, health, the weather today? This is a unique map, which has never been created before. The map is experienced within the body — the first and most obvious differentiating marker between “I” and “everyone else”.

We are organisms co-existing with our environment, making no sense without it, needing to be aware of what we are actually doing, rather than what we think we are doing — let alone what we think about what we are thinking we are doing.

To paraphrase Harryman, sometimes, stuff just happens. How we respond determines whether we use that stuff to grow flowers or just end up smelling bad…

In this continuing series on sense of self, Sarah Luczaj explores a piece of research comparing the well-being of Japanese and North American students, drawing conclusions about the roles of gratitude and peaceful disengagement.

In this second of the series on sense of self and how it differs across cultures, I am going to look at the interconnected or relational self, and how awareness of how interdependent we are might lead to fear of others.

Self-esteem is generally considered to be something vital, a value in itself, in Western societies. In this first of a series on our sense of self, or lack of it, I am going to look at the apparent lack of self-esteem in Chinese compared to North American students.

Sarah Luczaj takes a look at How to Cure Boredom, an upcoming e-book by fellow contributor Evan Hadkins.