I have the good fortune to have a job right now, but many of my friends are out of work. Most have been searching for a while. Some are encountering a problem that has my full sympathy, something I’ve experienced myself at various times. I’m not sure I can solve it, but maybe I can help put words to what some are going through.
The problem unfolds in three distinct phases as the job search drags on.
Continue reading “When the Job Search Becomes Impossible: Three Phases of Burnout”
Like most people, I experience pain. Physical pain, emotional pain, mental pain, perhaps even spiritual pain. It happens to the best of us.
It would be nice if something as widespread and commonplace as pain were pleasant and enriching. But as it turns out, I don’t actually like pain that much. You might even say I hate it. I would very much like to experience less of it. I would like so much to experience less pain that I’ve thought quite a bit about how to do so.
Recently while pursuing these researches I discovered something—a method not (alas!) of completely eliminating pain, but of greatly diminishing it. This solution, or mitigation, works against all the kinds of pain I know of: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Nor is it an obvious solution. I don’t think I’ve come across anyone else talking about it, at least not quite in this way. So I’d better share it with you in case you are also one of those who dislike pain and would like to rid yourself of some of it.
Continue reading “First- and Second-Order Pain”