What if everything you've been told about meaning is wrong?For centuries, philosophers, theologians, and self-help gurus have treated meaning as something that either descends upon us like grace - or withholds itself forever. Either life has meaning, or it doesn't. Either you find it, or you spend your days searching.Dr. Eric Maisel proposes something far more radical - and far more liberating.Meaning is a feeling. A specific, cultivatable psychological experience t...

ENTER THE AGE OF THE EXISTENTIAL NOMADWe are entering a psychological and cultural era in which the old structures that once organized human life-stable identities, lifelong careers, prescribed roles, and shared pathways to meaning-are dissolving. In their place is emerging a new kind of person: the existential nomad.Earlier generations often accepted ready-made identities supplied by family, religion, community, or profession. Toda...

In this 2026 interview with Justine Willis Toms, Maisel shares how we can cultivate serenity not just in meditation, but in the thick of daily life. Serene readiness, Maisel explains, means being mentally and emotionally prepared for life’s surprises while staying grounded in one’s values and creative intentions. This dialogue offers a powerful reminder: Serenity is not withdrawal—it’s readiness in motion.Eric Maisel is a retired, licensed psychotherapist and an internationally res...

In this 2026 interview with Justine Willis Toms, Maisel shares how we can cultivate serenity not just in meditation, but in the thick of daily life. Serene readiness, Maisel explains, means being mentally and emotionally prepared for life’s surprises while staying grounded in one’s values and creative intentions. This dialogue offers a powerful reminder: Serenity is not withdrawal—it’s readiness in motion.Eric Maisel is a retired, licensed psychotherapist and an internationally res...

In this 2026 interview with Justine Willis Toms, Maisel shares how we can cultivate serenity not just in meditation, but in the thick of daily life. Serene readiness, Maisel explains, means being mentally and emotionally prepared for life’s surprises while staying grounded in one’s values and creative intentions. This dialogue offers a powerful reminder: Serenity is not withdrawal—it’s readiness in motion.Eric Maisel is a retired, licensed psychotherapist and an internationally res...

In this 2026 interview with Justine Willis Toms, Maisel shares how we can cultivate serenity not just in meditation, but in the thick of daily life. Serene readiness, Maisel explains, means being mentally and emotionally prepared for life’s surprises while staying grounded in one’s values and creative intentions. This dialogue offers a powerful reminder: Serenity is not withdrawal—it’s readiness in motion.Eric Maisel is a retired, licensed psychotherapist and an internationally res...

In this 2026 interview with Justine Willis Toms, Maisel shares how we can cultivate serenity not just in meditation, but in the thick of daily life. Serene readiness, Maisel explains, means being mentally and emotionally prepared for life’s surprises while staying grounded in one’s values and creative intentions. This dialogue offers a powerful reminder: Serenity is not withdrawal—it’s readiness in motion.Eric Maisel is a retired, licensed psychotherapist and an internationally res...

Creative people will experience depression-that’s a given. It’s a given because they are regularly confronted by doubts about the meaningfulness of their efforts. Theirs is a kind of depression that does not respond to pharmaceutical treatment. What’s required is healing in the realm of meaning.In this groundbreaking book, Eric Maisel teaches creative people how to handle these recurrent crises of meaning and how to successfully manage the anxieties of the creative process. Using e...

For writers, artists, musicians, and creators in every field, this book offers a complete addiction recovery program specifically designed for the creative person. Full of explanations and exercises, this book presents ways to use your own innate creative abilities in service of your recovery and at each stage of the recovery process. Topics include: the biological and developmental risks unique to creative people; the special personality traits that can inform the recovery process; ways t...

A no-excuses, cut-to-the-chase program for defining, training for, and achieving your goalsAs life gets busier and more complicated we crave something larger and more meaningful than just ticking another item off our to-do list. In the past, we’ve looked to religion or outside guidance for that sense of purpose, but today fewer people are fulfilled by traditional approaches to meaning. Bestselling author, psychotherapist, and creativity coach Eric Maisel offers an ...

Whatever you do, says Dr. Eric Maisel, creativity helps you do it better. Creativity encourages the artist to paint more frequently and authentically. It allows a busy executive to see her options more quickly, make changes more fluidly, and become more self-directing and confident.In this book, America's foremost expert on the psychological side of the creative process presents a complete one-year plan for increasing and unleashing your creativity. It includes two disucssions/exer...

In his decades as a psychotherapist and creativity coach, Eric Maisel has found a common thread behind what often gets labeled “writer’s block,” “procrastination,” or “stage fright.” It’s the particular anxiety that, paradoxically, keeps creators from doing, completing, or sharing the work they are driven toward. This “creative anxiety” can take the form of avoiding the work, declaring it not good enough, or failing to market it — and it can cripple creators for decades, even lifetimes. Bu...