Posts by Christopher L. Heffner, PsyD, PhD
Stoicism, Virtue, and Mental Health
The point of philosophy is to become a better person, at least according to the Stoics. Perhaps this is why the Stoicism and the Stoics writings continue to play a vital role in religion, philosophy, psychology, and mental health. Their four virtues, among other aspects of Stoicism, were expanded from Socrates beginning around 300BCE and…
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Being a Perfectionist Doesn’t Have to be a Negative
Being a perfectionist gets a bad rap. It is associated with negative outcomes, anxiety and stress. This isn’t because perfectionism is bad, but rather the way we approach it is bad. Hurtful Perfectionism Perfectionism is a striving, meaning it is about constant forward movement. This means it is about finding solutions and moving toward the…
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Stoic Philosophers – The First Cognitive Behavioral Therapists
When we think of philosophers, names like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle often come to mind. For psychology, this makes a lot of sense since we use Socratic Questioning, documented by Plato, as an important component of Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT). Aristotle was the first to write about the mind-body connection. But the first approach to self-help…
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Spotlight on Self-Care
Self-care is the process of reducing stress and ill-being and improving health and well-being. It is about countering the forces that deplete us and building the forces that nourish or strengthen us. Self-care is important to healthy psychological functioning and has become especially vital in the age of COVID-19. Like all animals, human beings are preprogrammed…
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Spotlight on Grit
Albert Einstein once said, “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” This quote exemplifies the concept of grit. Angela Duckworth, PhD About five years ago, Dr. Angela Duckworth published her book, Grit, which focused on the power of both passion and perseverance in one’s success in life.…
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Spotlight on Well-Being: We’ve Come a Long Way since Freud
Sigmund Freud Just as the world was preparing to enter the 20th century, Sigmund Freud was preparing to shock everyone with talk of unconscious drives focused on sex and aggression. He published Interpretation of Dreams in 1899 and started the professional psychology movement. 100+ years later psychology as a discipline has shed light into the…
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Learning to be Optimistic
As a human species, do you think we are more naturally pessimistic or more naturally optimistic? Interestingly, Seligman and others in the field of positive psychology argue that we are naturally more pessimistic. From a biological perspective, as animals, we are preprogrammed to seek out potential danger as a means of survival. Even Freud talked…
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Self-Efficacy – How We Can, Not Why We Can’t
The title of this blog post comes from a Ted Talk by Peter Sage. I’ll link to the video below so you can watch it yourself. In the video, Sage talks about the incredibly limiting impact of self doubt. A quote of his I really liked is “You will never rise above your own opinion…
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Character Strengths and the Virtuous Life
The ultimate goal in positive psychology is to help individuals and communities thrive. We thrive by maximizing our character strengths in pursuit of well-being. Read my post on Well-Being and the Five ‘Happy’ Lives to learn more about well-being. To read all about Character Strengths, get the original book on the topic, Character Strengths and…
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Grit – Passion and Perseverance
What makes someone successful? Is it intellect? Education? Physical health? Talent? Maybe luck? According to Dr. Angela Duckworth from the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, it is none of those things. In her 2016 bestselling book – Grit – she interviewed successful people in a wide variety of professions – business, sports,…
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