Windvane

Efrat explains her belief that suffering is a natural part of life, and that a disservice psychiatry has done to our cultural worldview is to deny this truth. 

Efrat addresses undergraduate students with her core piece of advice: trust yourself. She adds that developing an understanding of systemic factors that might be contributing to your struggles is an important way of taking the burden off of yourself.  

Dr. Garrett talks about what we can learn from medical anthropology about our understanding of suffering and illness. Taking the work of Professor Arthur Kleinman as an example, she describes how cross-cultural analysis can reveal some of the peculiarities of biomedical theory and practice, and how this may affect our own experiences of health and disease.

Ms. Munjee speaks about managing difficult emotions such as anger, shame, fear and grief, and suggests that these emotions should not be treated as ‘bad,’ but rather they can be a motivation for change, depending on how they are expressed. She talks about healthy and unhealthy ways to express difficult emotions, for example through movement, and the importance of having a community to share our emotions with. She invites listeners to notice where they feel their emotions in the body, and to seek professional supports when they need help exploring and dealing with difficult emotions.  

Dr. Hewitt explains that one of the most damaging aspects of trauma can be how the people around us respond to it. She talks about trauma as ‘laying down tracks’ in the body and consciousness. Religion, in its texts and traditions, can sometimes reinforce the harmful idea that trauma is something to be accepted. Dr. Hewitt also discusses the way in which the pandemic has traumatized us on a global scale. Now more than ever, it is important for educators to show deep care for their students.

Dr. Weisbaum explains how it is common to panic when we are asked to focus, especially coming from a culture of perfectionism, as many students do. The antidote to this anxiety is kindness for ourselves. We can learn to greet our anxiety with compassion instead of judgment, and these moments are when mindfulness can be considered ‘a success.’ 

Dr. Mulligan discusses the variety of contexts that can make isolation more or less challenging for individuals. While it may be difficult during the pandemic, the most important thing is to prioritize connection with people, even in small ways.

Dr. Stellar discusses the way in which some emotions, such as awe, defy the categories of ‘positive’ or ‘negative.’ Depending on specific contexts and the way a person handles it, awe and other emotions can have very different consequences for our wellbeing.

As students, we often feel pressure to complete our assignments as soon as possible, which can lead to anxiety and overwork.  Iehnhotonkwas discusses the importance of taking a broader perspective, organizing your time over the course of a week, in order to break up your work into manageable sections. The medicine wheel can be used in this process to ensure that you are making time to balance all aspects of yourself, and also can be used longer term as a framework for one’s development. Towards the end, Iehnhotonkwas also mentions the importance of experiential, hands-on learning.  

Dr. Richardson talks about the challenges of creating equality within the hierarchical system of the university. Despite our changing values on an individual level, the university still retains an older value system that places intellectual work in opposition to compassion. She also discusses how moments of harassment can be turned into moments of critical inquiry, calling us to question the assumptions that are being made.

Dr. Goldberg discusses suffering from the lens of the philosophy of religion. He distinguishes suffering into two categories: useless and useful. Sometimes, which category an experience falls under depends on the person who is experiencing it. For example, intense exercise is useless suffering for some, but for others it is useful – a type of suffering they willingly endure for a concomitant pleasure. Likewise, if we endure emotional or psychological suffering in life, but change in a positive way because of it, we can recognize this as useful (or worthwhile) suffering. But then, is suffering just a matter of perspective? Can any suffering be found to be useful? What about times when we  can’t find meaning in suffering? Dr. Goldberg explores these questions and others.

Dr. Goldberg discusses the meaning of the term ‘evil’ as a possible synonym for suffering. He brings up the classic distinction between ‘natural evil’ and ‘moral evil’ to illustrate his point.

Dr. Goldberg poses a philosophical thought experiment: if you could be hooked up to a machine that simulated a perfectly happy life, would you do it? Most people would not. Perhaps this says something about the potential value of suffering, and how much of the meaning we derive from life is based in suffering. Dr. Goldberg suggests that there is therapeutic benefit in facing philosophical questions head-on, in that they help us face the suffering in our lives instead of falling into patterns of avoidance.