Mental Health - Widower Experience (WX)

Since I was a little boy it was without question and beyond doubt for myself and my understanding - that living and designing go together. Design isn’t just about making things look appealing, or just about usability, or even just delight. It is about taking something from being usable to delightful, and then beyond that — to meaningful. And I hope that everyone of you agrees that life must cover the same. Life must be appealing - and only you can define what is appealing for you Life must be usable - easy to use - reducing hurdles and obstacles, and errors And most of all life has to be delightful and meaningful to you - and beyond that it is you - your most precious treasure Remembering the quote by Joseph Beuys ... “Every human being is an artist, a freedom being, called to participate in transforming and reshaping the conditions, thinking and structures that shape and inform our lives.” ― Joseph Beuys … it should remind us to design our life. Even the tools will vary -...

Design thinking has helped me create new products, concepts, services and other abstract challenges. And these creative methods of design thinking helped me to focus, arranging values, my values and aims - to practice self-awareness - and to design a 'better life' for myself. In fact, I firmly believe that design thinking may help others as well to deal with challenges in life and for instance grief. By the way - already two year ago I wrote an article labeled:  Every human being is a designer - design your life by Design Thinking  and so you can consider this article as a late follow up. How to use Design Thinking for your life and especially for dealing with grieving? Empathize and Journaling Start with empathy and self-understanding - and one method is to journaling. You may have stopped using a diary once you reached adulthood. But the method and its benefits still apply. And it’s called journaling. It's simply writing down your thoughts and feelings to understan...

World Creativity and Innovation Day is a global UN day celebrated on April 21 to raise awareness around the importance of creativity and innovation in problem solving. World Creativity and Innovation Day is a day for the global community to realize that creativity and innovation are crucial for a country's economy. These forces can drive economic growth, create jobs and offer opportunities for everyone, including women and young people. They can also be used to solve serious issues like poverty and hunger. In the 21st century, the creativity and innovation of a person or a group of people are the most valuable resources a nation can have. There may be no universal understanding of creativity, but ... Creativity refers to the ability to generate or come up with new, original, and innovative ideas or solutions that are typically characterized by originality, expressiveness, and imagination. It's a process of seeing the world in new ways, breaking from established patterns or trad...

Every day we are faced with choices, big and small, that can influence how we feel about ourselves and our lives.  A choice point is a moment in time when we get to choose, get to the feeling that we have to or should choose between being consistent or inconsistent with what we do, how we do something, think about things - think about our values, life. It might be a moment where we face the eternal conundrum of ‘to a dessert or not to eat a dessert?’ or the choice between staying in a job we struggle with or even hate or seeking a more fulfilling one. The choices we make in these situations can make a big difference as to whether we experience more moments of ‘Yes, I am who I am and I want to live 'my life'!’ or ‘Ugh! I suck! What is my life!?’. It’s not always easy to identify when these choice points occur, but with practice and support, it can be easier. I already wrote about challenges in life - and in this context it is or might be worth to check them out... Dealing With C...

I already wrote a lot about design and life. But more and more I see that for myself both are the same or almost the same. I think that the aim of design is to make users, people, humans happy - and life has the same aim - I have my life to be happy. And for both it is true as well - working on a design  and as well  living your life can be challenging, and there is no holy grail, no golden path to luck, joy and success ... There's much more to design and life than what we, you and I see.  Whether I had to design something as town planner and architect (where I started my career) or now as designer for digital products - what is in front of us is a blank paper - and already at this moment I ask nyself and you should ask yourself - are you taking the familiar 8.5″ x 11″ (America) or an A4 (Europe)  or  do you tear a page from huge roll of paper? Meaning are you confining / limiting yourself without good reasons - only because these boundaries are c...

Sometimes life gets tough and you might feel like you’ve lost yourself. Maybe you feel like you are not the person you are supposed to be and you feel lost in life. In this case, you have a lot of growing and learning to do.  Sometimes life gets tough and you might feel like you’ve lost yourself. Maybe you feel like you are not the person you are supposed to be and you feel lost in life. In this case, you have a lot of growing and learning to do.  Life is not only about finding yourself. Life is even more about creating yourself. Rebuild Your Life Month is observed each year in June and it allows people to take a moment to reflect on the way they’re living their lives.  It is a smponth in the year / a time set aside for people to assess their current situations and make positive changes ... Shifting career paths Enhancing personal happiness, Changing unhealthy habits ... this month supports and encourages a fresh start. This time of the year should empower people to take ...

My thoughts at the end of the year. We are living in a time of huge changes. Now another year is ending. and 2024 will start soon. I can, You can, we can start a new year with confidence by simply being open to ALL that can occur, change and shift in the upcoming 365 days. We know that things can change in one day, so don’t let the idea of what you didn’t accomplish or didn’t finish stop you from knowing that it can and will still get done. We all could use a few ways to start a new year with confidence. You can be confident in a new year no matter how things ended on December 31 What is confidence?  Well - In its simplest form, confidence is the feeling of trust in something. When we’re talking about confidence we have to have self-confidence in mind and soul as well, it is the belief that you can trust in yourself and your abilities or knowledge. Confidence impacts physical and mental health. Confidence is a trait that can help us face life’s experiences head-on.  Start buil...

Bad luck brings good luck - and good luck brings bad luck - ... how lessons from Stoicism accompanied me through my life. It is worth it for everyone to look deeper into the philosophy of Stoicism. It is a method to help us in our thinking and actions in our fast moving and often unpredictable world. We can’t control the external events in our lives. But when something happens in our lives, we are in the position to decide what these things mean; we decided what the effect is. And remember this quote: “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” Stoicism is about the wisdom, or call it way of thinking and dealing with challenges that allows us to have a good and happy life. When it comes to dealing with difficult situations or people, the principles of Stoicism can provide you with a wealth of insight and advice. Putting it into a nutshell - it's all about the idea of looking inwards and chang...

I worked as an architect, as a designer, and currently call myself a User Experience Designer. I worked as a paramedic for the Red Cross and the military. I played a lot of team sports and was very successful with my sled dog team. What was and is a constant in my life - what ever I did and do it was and is regarding individuals. In design, the technical feasibility, economic viability, and the design itself are always decisive in whether an innovative, digital product will be successful. Therefore, it is even more important to put the user, the human being, at the center from the beginning to the end of the development.  Whenever I talk about my work, I think about people, about individuals. In essence, design means shaping, and it's a collective process involving many people. The outcome is influenced by various factors such as goals, intentions, values, beliefs, processes, organizational structures, politics, environment, social or technology. In short, design means to me: putti...

Empathy is fundamental to emotional intelligence - this is beyond all question. I read an interesting study by Sarah Konrath , college students in 2010 had 40% less empathy than college students had back in 1979.  Empathy is our ability to imagine life from another's perspective, to walk in someone else's shoes .  And here are some ways to jumpstart your empathic imagination.  Play a game I call five fingers perspectives and it is based on a design thinking method. Let's do it, I tell a story that typically generates a negative judgment. For example, you're a team member and you say hi to your trainer / coach / manager in the hallway, but she walks right by you without saying a word. Your assumption is, oh, she hates me or what a snob! Now your job is to create five explanations that assume no ill will on the part of your trainer / coach / manager.  Let's try it here, pause your reading and think of five innocent reasons that it could explain that behavior.  So...

Ich habe schon häufiger in meinen Artikeln Design Thinking und kreative Techniken erwähnt. Die genannten Techniken sind vielfältige Kreativitäts- und Problemlösungsansätze, die typischerweise in Bereichen wie Design, Engineering oder Geschäftsentwicklung eingesetzt werden. Sie können jedoch angepasst und auf verschiedene Kontexte angewendet werden, einschließlich der Arbeit mit Trauer und Depression.  Hier sind einige Beispiele, wie man diese kreative Techniken in einem Gespräch, Treffen, oder Beratungssituation oder als 'Hausaufgabe' anwenden kann: Brainstorming: Sammeln von Ideen für Bewältigungsstrategien Auflistung positiver Erinnerungen an verstorbene Personen Das Clastern kann dann am ende de Brainstorming nach Schwerpunkten, Situationen, nach persönlicher Gewichtung oder auch in Form eines 'Familienaufstellung geschehen. Bei Brainstorming handelt es ggf. um die klassischste Kreativtechnik, bei der Einzelpersonen oder eine Gruppe innerhalb eines festgelegten Zeitrahme...

Self-awareness starts and goes on with a continuous process and perception of yourself - including your personality, strengths, weaknesses, passion and more and your emotions- and this leads you to a knowledge about yourself, acquaintances and familiarity - referring to an objective and non-judgemental evaluation. Why me - why should you value self-awareness so much? Sometimes what we feel can fool us. Feelings and emotions are highly subjective. Without self-awareness, our emotions can lead us to false beliefs. When you know yourself well and you are able to judge yourself at least a little more objectively, it's much easier to break free from emotional bondage and challenges. If you deal with it in a more reflective way, you can deal with the ups and downs of life better because you understand them better - better understand what you want and what you want, should or must do next. Emotions are the essential part of life Emotions are an integral part of who we are, but they are no...

Have you ever asked yourself or wondered why we set off any kind of celebrations on special days like birthdays, anniversaries or for instance on New Year’s Eve? - Well substantially  and essentially it's about dealing with change. Dealing with change and adjusting to change doesn’t have to be as stressful as it often is - but whether we like it, want it, or what ever - from time to time there are changes which do or will be challenging.. And even you know this quote - let me phrase it again: Change is an inevitable part of life. It happens whether we’re ready or not.  Change is everywhere and continually in our lives. Regardless, change can be difficult and threatening to deal with. Going back to the mentioned celebrations of birthdays, anniversaries or for instance on New Year’s Eve. Celebrating these milestones and changes we set a marker, we set off fireworks, make as much noise as we can, and for instance - taking about New Year's Eve - we hope that all that light and noi...

Viele fragen sich was andere von einem wollen, was die Welt von einem erwartet oder die Welt braucht. Frage dich lieber selbst, was macht Dich lebendig, was fühlt sich gut an, was fühlt sich richtig an - und dann gehe und tue es. Was die Welt und dein Umfeld braucht sind Menschen die lebendig sind. Menschen leiden, haben dunkle Wolken, ganze 'Tiefdruckgebiete' an düsteren Gefühlen und Gedanken - leiden unter vielen Ängsten oder auch oft unter Minderwertigkeitskomplexen. Die meisten verheimlichen ihre Gefühle vor Freunden, Familie und Partner, weil sie niemanden belasten wollen. Der emotionale Druck, den man zusätzlich zu seinen Emotionen verspürt, ist gigantisch.  Darum ist Verständnis für diese Menschen oder wenn es einen selber betrifft für sich selbst die größte Hilfe im Kampf gegen schlechte Gefühle, Gedanken und depressive Phasen oder auch Depressionen und Leiden. Es geht um Mitgefühl, Zuneigung, Selbstwert und Akzeptanz, die jeder so dringend benötigen. Wenn es um einen s...