Activities of Daily Living

Abstract

This journal issue reports on the effects on our spirits of the increasing stress, complexity, and change that seemingly are coming faster than we as a species can adapt to them. The sources of our articles (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Palestine, Portugal, South Korea, Turkey, and the US) show that these effects are being felt all over the world. The title of this editorial reflects two concepts presented in this issue: that it is the things we want or need to do in our lives—our activities—that comprise our humanity, and that mental health is a daily continuum, from coping and resilience to significant vulnerability, from psychological pleasure to psychological pain, and from effective performance to struggles with, and sometimes inability to do, the things that help us live in the world. All our articles illustrate in some way these concepts of a continuum of mental health, and of our functioning in the world as its measure.