Life for most of us in our modern society takes a toll on our emotional, psychological and physical well-being. Harvard psychologist Robert Kegan asserts that we do not have the mental framework and associated mental capacities, to adequately to meet the overwhelming demands of modern life. This inadequacy leaves most people with increasing and growing levels of anxiety, depression, disconnected to their experiences of joy, love, happiness and inner peace, and lacking a sense of purpose in life with related personal and professional meaning.
How can we impact the troubling ubiquitous human issues that characterize our society, or at least know to process the daily bombardment? From children being bullied in schools because of ethnic or social status, to increased heroin abuse because of post-traumatic stress syndrome, to increased levels of adolescent depression and suicide due to increased stressors, to increased incidences of sexual assault and cutting on college campuses, to record levels of being overweight and obesity, just to name a few, I think we can agree that something is not quite right in our modern society.
The statistics from recent studies are alarming and have reached crisis levels. A 2016 study published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology found that 83 percent of participants experienced depression, anxiety or other mental health disorder. The study was conducted over the lifetimes of 988 individuals, with a total of 13 assessments taking place between their birth and when they hit age 38. A recent American Academy of Pediatrics study found a significant increase in major depressive episodes over the past 10 years, especially among adolescent girls and young adult women.
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