Finding Meaning

Finding Meaning
Author: David Kessler
Publisher: Scribner
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2019-11-05
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 1501192736

In this groundbreaking new work, David Kessler—an expert on grief and the coauthor with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross of the iconic On Grief and Grieving—journeys beyond the classic five stages to discover a sixth stage: meaning. In 1969, Elisabeth Kübler Ross first identified the stages of dying in her transformative book On Death and Dying. Decades later, she and David Kessler wrote the classic On Grief and Grieving, introducing the stages of grief with the same transformative pragmatism and compassion. Now, based on hard-earned personal experiences, as well as knowledge and wisdom earned through decades of work with the grieving, Kessler introduces a critical sixth stage. Many people look for “closure” after a loss. Kessler argues that it’s finding meaning beyond the stages of grief most of us are familiar with—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—that can transform grief into a more peaceful and hopeful experience. In this book, Kessler gives readers a roadmap to remembering those who have died with more love than pain; he shows us how to move forward in a way that honors our loved ones. Kessler’s insight is both professional and intensely personal. His journey with grief began when, as a child, he witnessed a mass shooting at the same time his mother was dying. For most of his life, Kessler taught physicians, nurses, counselors, police, and first responders about end of life, trauma, and grief, as well as leading talks and retreats for those experiencing grief. Despite his knowledge, his life was upended by the sudden death of his twenty-one-year-old son. How does the grief expert handle such a tragic loss? He knew he had to find a way through this unexpected, devastating loss, a way that would honor his son. That, ultimately, was the sixth state of grief—meaning. In Finding Meaning, Kessler shares the insights, collective wisdom, and powerful tools that will help those experiencing loss. Finding Meaning is a necessary addition to grief literature and a vital guide to healing from tremendous loss. This is an inspiring, deeply intelligent must-read for anyone looking to journey away from suffering, through loss, and towards meaning.

Finding Meaning

Finding Meaning
Author: Brandy Nalani McDougall
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2016-06-03
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 0816531986

Winner of the Native American Literature Symposium's Beatrice Medicine Award for Published Monograph The first extensive study of contemporary Hawaiian literature, Finding Meaning examines kaona, the practice of hiding and finding meaning, for its profound connectivity. Through kaona, author Brandy Nalani McDougall affirms the tremendous power of Indigenous stories and genealogies to give lasting meaning to decolonization movements.

Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World

Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World
Author: Iddo Landau
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2017-07-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0190657685

Does life have meaning? Is it possible for life to be meaningful when the world is filled with suffering and when so much depends merely upon chance? Even if there is meaning, is there enough to justify living? These questions are difficult to resolve. There are times in which we face the mundane, the illogically cruel, and the tragic, which leave us to question the value of our lives. However, Iddo Landau argues, our lives often are, or could be made, meaningful—we've just been setting the bar too high for evaluating what meaning there is. When it comes to meaning in life, Landau explains, we have let perfect become the enemy of the good. We have failed to find life perfectly meaningful, and therefore have failed to see any meaning in our lives. We must attune ourselves to enhancing and appreciating the meaning in our lives, and Landau shows us how to do that. In this warmly written book, rich with examples from the author's life, film, literature, and history, Landau offers new theories and practical advice that awaken us to the meaning already present in our lives and demonstrates how we can enhance it. He confronts prevailing nihilist ideas that undermine our existence, and the questions that dog us no matter what we believe. While exposing the weaknesses of ideas that lead many to despair, he builds a strong case for maintaining more hope. Along the way, he faces provocative questions: Would we choose to live forever if we could? Does death render life meaningless? If we examine it in the context of the immensity of the whole universe, can we consider life meaningful? If we feel empty once we achieve our goals, and the pursuit of these goals is what gives us a sense of meaning, then what can we do? Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World is likely to alter the way you understand your life.

Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life

Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life
Author: James Hollis
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2005-05-05
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 1101216697

What does it really mean to be a grown up in today’s world? We assume that once we “get it together” with the right job, marry the right person, have children, and buy a home, all is settled and well. But adulthood presents varying levels of growth, and is rarely the respite of stability we expected. Turbulent emotional shifts can take place anywhere between the age of thirty-five and seventy when we question the choices we’ve made, realize our limitations, and feel stuck—commonly known as the “midlife crisis.” Jungian psycho-analyst James Hollis believes it is only in the second half of life that we can truly come to know who we are and thus create a life that has meaning. In Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life, Hollis explores the ways we can grow and evolve to fully become ourselves when the traditional roles of adulthood aren’t quite working for us, revealing a new way of uncovering and embracing our authentic selves. Offering wisdom to anyone facing a career that no longer seems fulfilling, a long-term relationship that has shifted, or family transitions that raise issues of aging and mortality, Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life provides a reassuring message and a crucial bridge across this critical passage of adult development.

Finding Meaning and Success

Finding Meaning and Success
Author: Chris Palmer
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2021-07-10
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 1475850549

This book will help you design and create the best version of yourself. It will give you the chance to shape the kind of person you want to be, and to articulate the goals you want to achieve in your life, both professionally and personally. It will help you behave in ways that are true to your most honorable and generous self. It is a practical guide for people who are interested in leading a more meaningful and successful life, or helping others to do so. It teaches you how to author your own life and how to make commitments to yourself and others that will transform your life for the better. You’ll learn to reflect on your life, think about what really matters to you, and how to create a personal mission statement. You’ll think about your values, articulate your goals, and manage your time effectively. You’ll explore what it means to live an examined life. At the end of each chapter, there are questions to think about and actions to take that reinforce the key messages.

Finding Meaning, Facing Fears

Finding Meaning, Facing Fears
Author: Jerrold Lee Shapiro, Ph.D.
Publisher: Impact Publishers
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2012-04-01
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 188623096X

Autumn is a time of bright colors and full harvest moons; a time to reap and savor what we’ve sown. Our autumn years are the ideal time to reexamine our lives. Often spurred on by a 50th birthday or the last child leaving home, it becomes important to question who we are in the larger scheme of things, to wonder what we really want from our lives. Finding Meaning, Facing Fears (Winner of the Alpha Sigma Nu Book Awards 2013) invites us to explore the many opportunities this time of life presents: opportunities to stretch in our capacities, to face and conquer old demons, and to meet new challenges with greater resources than were available to us before. We will also have a greater opportunity to give back to the world the benefit of our experiences and to think about and implement our personal legacies. Dr. Shapiro helps us discover which alternatives will serve best in our relationships, career, even spiritual quests, and offers answers to the inevitable questions we face as we get older, such as: “Is that all there is?” “Is it too late to change my life?” “Where do I go from here?” and, “I’ve got everything I thought I wanted; why aren’t I happy?”

On Grief and Grieving

On Grief and Grieving
Author: Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2014-08-12
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1476775559

Ten years after the death of Elisabeth K bler-Ross, this commemorative edition of her final book combines practical wisdom, case studies, and the authors' own experiences and spiritual insight to explain how the process of grieving helps us live with loss. Includes a new introduction and resources section. Elisabeth K bler-Ross's On Death and Dying changed the way we talk about the end of life. Before her own death in 2004, she and David Kessler completed On Grief and Grieving, which looks at the way we experience the process of grief. Just as On Death and Dying taught us the five stages of death--denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance--On Grief and Grieving applies these stages to the grieving process and weaves together theory, inspiration, and practical advice, including sections on sadness, hauntings, dreams, isolation, and healing. This is "a fitting finale and tribute to the acknowledged expert on end-of-life matters" (Good Housekeeping).

Morning, Noon, and Night

Morning, Noon, and Night
Author: Arnold Weinstein
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 465
Release: 2011-02-15
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0679604472

From Homer and Shakespeare to Toni Morrison and Jonathan Safran Foer, major works of literature have a great deal to teach us about two of life’s most significant stages—growing up and growing old. Distinguised scholar Arnold Weinstein’s provocative and engaging new book, Morning, Noon, and Night, explores classic writing’s insights into coming-of-age and surrendering to time, and considers the impact of these revelations upon our lives. With wisdom, humor, and moving personal observations, Weinstein leads us to look deep inside ourselves and these great books, to see how we can use art as both mirror and guide. He offers incisive readings of seminal novels about childhood—Huck Finn’s empathy for the runaway slave Jim illuminates a child’s moral education; Catherine and Heathcliff’s struggle with obsessive passion in Wuthering Heights is hauntingly familiar to many young lovers; Dickens’s Pip, in Great Expectations, must grapple with a world that wishes him harm; and in Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical Persepolis, little Marjane faces a different kind of struggle—growing into adolescence as her country moves through the pain of the Iranian Revolution. In turn, great writers also ponder the lessons learned in life’s twilight years: both King Lear and Willy Loman suffer as their patriarchal authority collapses and death creeps up; Brecht’s Mother Courage displays the inspiring indomitability of an aging woman who has “borne every possible blow. . . but is still standing, still moving.” And older love can sometimes be funny (Rip Van Winkle conveniently sleeps right through his marriage) and sometimes tragic (as J. M. Coetzee’s David Lurie learns the hard way, in Disgrace). Tapping into the hearts and minds of memorable characters, from Sophocles’ Oedipus to Artie in Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Morning, Noon, and Night makes an eloquent and powerful case for the role of great literature as a knowing window into our lives and times. Its intelligence, passion, and genuine appreciation for the written word remind us just how crucial books are to the business of being human.

Me to We

Me to We
Author: Craig Kielburger
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2006
Genre: Altruism
ISBN: 0743298314

For anyone who has ever yearned for a better life and a better world, the Kielburgers challenge people to improve their own lives by helping others, and to recognize what is truly valuable.