Category: Kephen’s Commentary
A myriad of articles on my opinions about current events and controversial topics.
Posted on April 24, 2021
by Kēphen
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Your first question after reading the title is probably “What is emotional impotence?” Emotional Impotence is a term sometimes used in behavioral health, also often called toxic positivity or chronic optimism, and refers to the act of compartmentalizing or dismissing negative and often traumatic… Continue Reading “How to Practice Empathy and Prevent Emotional Impotence”
Category: All, Behavioral Health, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Advice on Expressions of Sympathy, Apathy, Chronic Optimism, Emotional Impotence, Emotional Intelligence, Emotional Understanding, Empathy, How to Practice Empathy, How to Talk to a Grieving Parent, How to Talk to a Grieving Spouse, Human Connection, Human Interaction, Social Behavior, Social Skills, Speaking to the Bereaved, Sympathy, Talking About Grief, Toxic Positivity
Posted on January 26, 2020
by Kēphen
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The Scars of Loss We never forget the people we have lost. Sometimes our losses are so close to our heart that we lose a part of ourselves with the passing of our loved one. The pain from this kind of loss is initially… Continue Reading “The Scars of Loss”
Category: All, Human Condition, In Loving Memory, Kephen's CommentaryTags: *See All Posts, Bereaved, Bereavement, Death, Death of a Loved One, Dying, Grief, Grief-Stricken, Grieved, Grieving Child, Grieving Parent, Loss, Loss of a Loved One, Pain of Loss, Scars of Loss, Widow, Widower
Posted on September 20, 2018
by Kēphen
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My name is Kephen Merancis and there’s really no easy way to start the conversation that we need to have. It takes a lot of courage to break the wall of silence that stigma builds. It takes at least a little bit of hope… Continue Reading “Out of the Darkness: My Experience with a Mental Health Condition”
Category: All, Behavioral Health, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Behavioral Health, Bi-polar Disorder, Depression, MCRD, Mental Health, Mental Illness, San Diego, Suicide Awareness, Suicide Prevention, USMC
Posted on June 9, 2018
by Kēphen
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To be Acknowledged as Existing 7,432 Americans will wake up today to what will be their last day alive, most of whom will not know this ahead of time. According to the American mortality rate published in 2016 by the National Center for Health… Continue Reading “To Be Acknowledged As Existing”
Category: All, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Appreciation, Awareness, Friends, Friendship, Gratitude, Lessons on Living, Love, Loved Ones, Positive Influence, Thich Nhat Hanh, What Matters
Posted on March 19, 2018
by Kēphen
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The Inexplicable Have you ever stopped to think for a moment how incredibly rare your existence actually is? The odds that you would ever come into being are literally on average a million to one. That’s literally a 0.000001% chance that you would be… Continue Reading “The Inexplicable”
Category: All, Human Condition, In Loving Memory, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Appreciation, Awareness, Behavioral Health, Dealing With Loss, Death, Delusion, Dying, Ego, Ethics, Existence, Existential, Existentialism, Fulfillment, Gratitude, Happiness, Honesty, Human Connection, Insight, Inspiration, Introspective, Joy, Lessons on Living, Life, Loss, Loss of Loved Ones, Meaning, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Mortality, Philosophy, Purpose, Rarity of Life, Reality Check, Reflecting, Ruminating, Truth, Value of Life, What Matters, Wisdom
Posted on March 19, 2018
by Kēphen
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How To Research Your Family Ancestry So you’ve decided that you want to research your family ancestry, but you don’t know where to begin. Genealogy, the study of family ancestry, is both immensely rewarding and incredibly time consuming. For most people, the time required… Continue Reading “Genealogy: How To Research Your Family Ancestry”
Category: All, Human Condition, In Loving Memory, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Advice For Beginners, Building A Family Tree, Family History, Family Research, Genealogy, How To, Inspiration, Learn About Your Ancestors
Posted on February 7, 2018
by Kēphen
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Ben Tre: Keep The Loneliness Warm I hold my face in my two hands. No, I am not crying. I hold my face in my two hands to keep the loneliness warm two hands protecting, two hands nourishing, two hands preventing my soul from… Continue Reading “Ben Tre: Keep the Loneliness Warm”
Category: All, Atheism, Religion and Spirituality, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, Miscellaneous, PoliticsTags: *See All Posts, Ben Tre, Bombing of Ben Tre, Buddhism, Buddhist Monk, Da Nang, Destruction of Ben Tre, Facts, Ho Chi Minh City, Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, PBS, Politics, Public Broadcasting Service, Saigon, Self-Immolation, Southern Vietnam, The Vietnam War, Thich Nhat Hanh, Thich Quang Duc, Viet Cong, Vietnam War
Posted on January 30, 2018
by Kēphen
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What the Story of Hiro-Kala Teaches Us If you’re not familiar with Hiro-Kala, I’ll give you a brief glimpse. He is a Marvel Comic Universe fictional character created by Greg Pak and Ron Garney, appearing from 2008 through 2011 in such series as Skaar:… Continue Reading “What the Story of Hiro-Kala Teaches Us”
Category: All, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Axeman Bone, Bruce Banner, Caiera, Galactus, Hiro-Kala, Hulk's Dark Son, Incredible Hulk, Marvel Comics, Sakaar, Skaar, Skaar's Evil Twin, The Story of Hiro-Kala, Who is Hiro-Kala?
Posted on December 24, 2017
by Kēphen
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My parents on their wedding day. My dad was 20 years old and my mom was 16. When A Parent Dies Sometimes we avoid things we don’t want to accept or acknowledge as true, a futile attempt to hold onto the bliss of unknowing. … Continue Reading “When A Parent Dies”
Category: All, Atheism, Religion and Spirituality, Human Condition, In Loving Memory, Kephen's CommentaryTags: *See All Posts, Closure, Dealing With Loss, Death, Dying, In Loving Memory, In Memoriam, Loss, Loss of Loved Ones, Remembering, When A Parent Dies, When Mom Died
Posted on December 13, 2017
by Kēphen
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The Passenger: Commentaries on the Nature of Consciousness What is consciousness? It is defined as a subjective experience, an awareness of self or one’s surroundings and the ability to react to it. Right now, as you are reading this, there is someone inside your… Continue Reading “The Passenger”
Category: All, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Buddhism, Callosotomy, Christof Koch, Corpus Callosum, Daniel Dennett, David Chalmers, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Emergent Property, Gregory Matloff, John Wheeler, Left Hemisphere, Multiple Personality Disorder, Nature of Consciousness, Neuroscience, Panpsychism, Philosophy, Physics, Right Hemisphere, Roger Penrose, Sam Harris, Split-Brain Theory
Kēphen
Memento Vivere 
How to Practice Empathy and Prevent Emotional Impotence
Posted on April 24, 2021 by Kēphen
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Your first question after reading the title is probably “What is emotional impotence?” Emotional Impotence is a term sometimes used in behavioral health, also often called toxic positivity or chronic optimism, and refers to the act of compartmentalizing or dismissing negative and often traumatic… Continue Reading “How to Practice Empathy and Prevent Emotional Impotence”
Category: All, Behavioral Health, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Advice on Expressions of Sympathy, Apathy, Chronic Optimism, Emotional Impotence, Emotional Intelligence, Emotional Understanding, Empathy, How to Practice Empathy, How to Talk to a Grieving Parent, How to Talk to a Grieving Spouse, Human Connection, Human Interaction, Social Behavior, Social Skills, Speaking to the Bereaved, Sympathy, Talking About Grief, Toxic Positivity