The Ardent Axiom
Illuminating the Facts About Behavioral Health and Rising Above the Stigma
Category: Human Condition
Essays about the human endurement.
Online Etiquette
Posted on March 13, 2023 by Kēphen
We’ve all seen it online and most of us have probably done it: committing a social faux pas in the comments section of social media posts, YouTube videos, news articles, and forums. Though we’ve had centuries of revolving lessons on an ever-evolving modern social… Continue Reading “Online Etiquette”
Category: All, Behavioral Health, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, Miscellaneous, TechnologyTags: *See All Posts, Behavioral Health, Comment Trolls, Cyber Behavior, Cyber Etiquette, Cyber Troll, Cyberspace, Emotional Regulation, Internet Troll, Mental Health, Online Behavior, Online Etiquette, Social Behavior, Social Media, Technology
A Safe Place to Call Home: The Childhood Trauma of Growing Up LGBTQ+ in Small-Town America
Posted on October 11, 2022 by Kēphen
I have lived in Osage County, Missouri my whole life, my family has done so for generations. Many, if not most, of the people who live here would tell you that they feel like they can be themselves, live the life they want, that… Continue Reading “A Safe Place to Call Home: The Childhood Trauma of Growing Up LGBTQ+ in Small-Town America”
Category: All, Behavioral Health, Human Condition, LGBTQ+Tags: *See All Posts, Behavioral Health, Growing Up LGBTQ+, LGBT, LGBTQ+, LGBTQ+ Childhood Trauma, LGBTQ+ Safe Space, LGBTQIA+, Mental Health, Mental Health for LGBTQIA+, Mid-America LGBTQ+, Midwest LGBTQ+, Missouri LGBTQ+, National Coming Out Day
20 Years Later
Posted on September 8, 2022 by Kēphen
20 Years Later:A Letter to a Lost Teenager There is so much I wish that I could have told you, so much that I wish I could have done for you. If only I could travel through time to 2002 and be a part… Continue Reading “20 Years Later”
Category: All, Human ConditionTags: *See All Posts, A Letter to Myself, Compassion, Dying and Birthing, Growing Up, Introspective, Journaling, Letter to My Past Self, Life From Death, Mental Disorder, Mental Health Condition, Mental Health Disorder, Mental Illness, Metaphors, Reborn, Self-Reflection, Truth, Unbecoming, Wisdom
Music & Mental Health: A Path to Recovery
Posted on August 20, 2022 by Kēphen
It was the spring of 2021 when I was first introduced to Oliver Daldry‘s music via a U.K. 2015 film titled Departure. At the time, I had quit my job a couple months prior and I was in a low point mentally, struggling with… Continue Reading “Music & Mental Health: A Path to Recovery”
Long December
Posted on December 25, 2021 by Kēphen
Long December Another long December has come again, another year of trying to forget the way you made me feel, another year of trying to forgive myself for what I let happen, another year of searching for ways to finally heal. Another long December… Continue Reading “Long December”
Category: All, Human Condition, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Bad Romance, Breakup, Cheater, Ex-boyfriend, Player, Relationships, Scars
The Power of Purpose, Meaning, and Fulfillment
Posted on September 28, 2021 by Kēphen
In my late teens and early twenties I knew what it meant to have a sense of purpose, but what I didn’t know was just how powerful its effect really was on my life. My discharge on January 11, 2008, was the first day… Continue Reading “The Power of Purpose, Meaning, and Fulfillment”
Category: All, Behavioral Health, Human Condition, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Action Plans, Active Resiliency, Anticipation Anxiety, Barriers to Success, Burnout, Catastrophic Thinking, Conflict Mode Instrument, Desensitization, Dissatisfaction Goal Setting, Effects of Stress and Anxiety, Encounter Stress, Explanatory Styles, Exposure Therapy, Exterior Barriers, Fulfillment, Goals, Inactive Resiliency, Interior Barriers, Learned Helplessness, Meaning, Optimism, PERMA Model, Pessimism, Positive Psychology, Power of Purpose, Prevention and Management of Stress and Anxiety, Problem Solving, Purpose, Recovery, Resiliency, Situational Stress, SMART Model, Stress and Anxiety, Stress and Anxiety Triggers, The Strenuous Life, Time Stress, TKI Model, Ulterior Barriers, VOCAB Model
World Suicide Prevention Day
Posted on September 10, 2021 by Kēphen
Today is World Suicide Prevention Day! Some of us have had suicidal thoughts in the past. Some of us are currently having suicidal thoughts. Some of us have put those thoughts into actions and have had abandoned attempts. Some of us have fully attempted… Continue Reading “World Suicide Prevention Day”
We Are Not the Burden, We Carry the Burden
Posted on August 16, 2021 by Kēphen
I would like to share some personal things about myself that I have been experiencing as of late, just in case others can relate. First though, I want to provide some context for why I decided to share my recent experiences. In June, I… Continue Reading “We Are Not the Burden, We Carry the Burden”
Category: All, Behavioral Health, Human ConditionTags: *See All Posts, Addiction, Alone, Anxiety, Behavioral Health, Bipolar Disorder, Compassion, Courage, Depression, Empathy, Fitness, Hope, Hopelessness, Life, Life After Trauma, Major Depression, Mental Breakdown, Mental Health, Mental Health Condition, Mental Health Issues, Mental Health Stigma, Mental Illness, Mental Illness Stigma, Military Suicide Awareness, Mindfulness, Mood Disorder, Online Bullying, Pandemic and Mental Health, Psychiatric Episode, Recovery, Self-awareness, Substance Use Disorders, Suicide Prevention, Unemployment
Social Media, Psychopathy, and Time Management
Posted on August 16, 2021 by Kēphen
In May 2009 I joined Twitter, two months later I deleted my account, and now twelve years after that I have rejoined the quagmire of Twitter for one single reason: it’s the only place where I can follow the vast majority of authors, scientists, philosophers,… Continue Reading “Social Media, Psychopathy, and Time Management”
Category: All, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, Miscellaneous, TechnologyTags: *See All Posts, Addiction, Antisocial, Apathy, Attention, Awareness, Behavioral Health, Bipolar Disorder, Delusion, Ego, Empathy, Facebook, Honesty, Human Interaction, Humble, Humility, Instagram, Introspective, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Narcissism, Narcissist, Narcissistic, Numb, Psychopathy, Reality Check, Sam Harris, Self-awareness, Self-esteem, Sensation Overload, Sensory Overload, Social Burnout, Social Media, Twitter, Unemployment, Video Games
Search For Content:
List of all Articles & Essays
- On the Nature of Happiness
- Online Etiquette
- Book Review: This Book Could Save Your Life
- A Safe Place to Call Home: The Childhood Trauma of Growing Up LGBTQ+ in Small-Town America
- 20 Years Later
- Seeking Help for Depression
- Workplace Mental Health
- The Words We Choose to Use in Behavioral Health
- In Memoriam: Ricardo “Ricky” Reyes
- Music & Mental Health: A Path to Recovery
- Unbecoming: The Struggle for Acceptance
- The National Suicide Hotline Designation Act: 988 Takes Effect July 16, 2022
- Long December
- The Power of Purpose, Meaning, and Fulfillment
- World Suicide Prevention Day
- We Are Not the Burden, We Carry the Burden
- Social Media, Psychopathy, and Time Management
- Employment Nostalgia
- Vaccination?
- Should You Go Back to School?
- The Privilege and Risks of Pretentious and Delusional Self-Importance in American Youth
- Prajñāpāramitā Part III: The Sacred Lotus of the Dharma
- How to Practice Empathy and Prevent Emotional Impotence
- Down the Rabbit Hole and Through the Looking Glass
- The Power of Hope on the Journey of Recovery
- The Right Mindset for a More Meaningful Life
- Companionship: Love Not Lust
- Recovery: Hope is the Spark
- To Mask or Not to Mask
- Freckles: Chapter Nineteen
- When Life Hurts the Most
- Start a Conversation that Matters
- The Tragedy of Travis Maldonado
- The Power and Truth of Self-Awareness
- A Journey Called Hope
- The Scars of Loss
- Unsolicited Stranger
- The Dying Light of Unrequited Love
- Freckles: Chapter Eighteen
- Liberation and a Return to the Sacred
- The Perfect Life
- Love Me Not
- Chasing the Westward Sun
- Life After
- The Past That’s Not Forgotten
- In the Twilight of Memory
- Out of the Darkness: My Experience with a Mental Health Condition
- U.S. Behavioral Health and the Workplace
- Prajñāpāramitā Part II: The Heart of Insight
- Moments in Time
- To Be Acknowledged As Existing
- Choose To Live
- The Power of Belief
- Lords of the Wild
- The Inexplicable
- Genealogy: How To Research Your Family Ancestry
- Ben Tre: Keep the Loneliness Warm
- Genetics: The Basics of How You’ve Come To Be
- What the Story of Hiro-Kala Teaches Us
- When A Parent Dies
- Prajñāpāramitā Part I: The Diamond that Cuts Through Illusion
- The Passenger
- His Light Carries On
- From Samanera to Bhikkhu: The Life of a Traditional Theravada Monk
- How To Start Eating Better
- The Macrocosm Perspective
- Human Sexuality Defined
- Alone In The Dark
- Nationalism and Police Brutality: The Deafening Sound of Ignorance
- The Middle Way and the Turning of the Wheel
- Identity Politics and the Slow Death of the American Moral Landscape
- The Thousand Year Journey
- His Empty Soul
- The Choice That Never Was
- No Arrival, No Destination, Just Being
- Respect For Living Things
- Abortion, Abstinence, Abuse, Birth Control, Teen Sex, and Unwanted Pregnancy
- The Darkest Corners of the Cyber World: Sexual Predation and Exploitation
- Freckles: Chapter Seventeen
- Everywhere You Go, There You Are
- Words To Live By
- Transgender in America
- On Faith and Fallacy: My Journey Out Of Christianity
- The Wall, Illegal Immigration, and the U.S. – Mexican Border
- Thích Nhất Hạnh
- How Climate Change Affects Our Lives
- Muslim Refugees, Christianity and the Future of Freedom
- In Search of Self
- On Labels and Identity
- It’s Been A While
- Freckles: Chapter Sixteen
- Freckles: Chapter Fifteen
- Freckles: Chapter Fourteen
- Freckles: Chapter Thirteen
- Freckles: Chapter Twelve
- Freckles: Chapter Eleven
- Freckles: Chapter Ten
- Freckles: Chapter Nine
- Freckles: Chapter Eight
- Freckles: Chapter Seven
- Freckles: Chapter Six
- Freckles: Chapter Five
- The Four Cornerstones
- Freckles: Chapter Four
- Freckles: Chapter Three
- Freckles: Chapter Two
- The Darklord
- Crash
- Freckles: Chapter One
- Anger, Violence, Death, and Regret
- Of God
- The Erosion of the Sagacious American Intellect
- Lemmings and Other Things
- Self-Reflection: To End A Cold, Damp Day
- The Man In The Mirror
- Keep You: Part Two
- Keep You: Part One
- The Demon In Me
- A River of Undying Flames
- Autumn Calls You Home
- These Walls, That Shadow, Those Memories and This Soul
- Meditation
- A Portal to My Mind
- At Peace With Goodbye
- The Starry Night
- Asylum of My Mind: A Beckoning to Darker Places
- My Heart in the Sun
Kēphen
The Ardent Axiom 
On the Nature of Happiness
Posted on March 14, 2023 by Kēphen
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In the pursuit of happiness we find ourselves chasing after many things: the right relationship partner, the dream job, the perfect home, the best vehicle, the latest tech gadget, but upon receipt of any of these things we merely find a short-lived excitement, a… Continue Reading “On the Nature of Happiness”
Category: All, Behavioral Health, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Behavioral Health, Emotions, Happiness, Impermanence, Inspiration, Introspective, Mental Health, Nature of Happiness, Pursuit of Contentment, Pursuit of Happiness