Chapter 3: A Precious Darkness: Utilizing Existential Loneliness to Achieve Culturally Relative Self-Actualization in the Classroom

This chapter explores culturally relative self-actualization experiences in the classroom that cultivate an existential awareness of students’ unique sense of selfhood. The existential given of isolation as a being entails solitude and loneliness. However, youth that experience loneliness anxieties may be fearful of existentialism altogether. Existential loneliness is an experience of sincere solitude where the person faces the realities of existence in courageous and compassionate ways. The authors discuss three approaches to helping students explore existential loneliness: cultural humility, mindful awareness practices, and cognitive reappraisal. When teachers engage existential loneliness, they develop a multicultural humanistic curriculum for children to find enlightenment and healing in the face of existential trauma.