From "What the Hell is Going On?" to "WHIGO?"  

WHY WHIGO?                                                                      
The idea is to learn how to "change the question What the Hell is Going On?, which is usually accompanied by some unpleasant feelings", with its acronym, “WHIGO'.  Just say the word WHIGO (pronounced whig-oe) and you will see how difficult it is to feel unpleasant feelings or have negative thoughts with this word.  It just somehow seems to be its nature.  It’s a fun, smile-producing word."  

See author interview on https://kboo.fm/media/64382-author-interview-leidi-monte

What the Hell is Going On? The Question, Our Secrets, Some Answers is the title of my first book. It is an examination of the most frequently asked question on the planet, “What the hell is going on?” (WHIGO), how we come to ask this question and what is behind the question that interferes with our happiness.

Our Secrets is a discussion of the basic human concerns that we all have, which most people don’t realized are shared. Because people don’t realize we all share these things they don’t discuss them with others. They think they are alone in feeling or thinking this way. So these shared human concerns are like secrets. In this book I attempt to demystify these concerns and educate people as to the shared humanness of it all.

So obviously Some Answers is the chapter that provides answers as to how to reduce one’s unhappiness and thereby have a more stable happiness. These answers are based on my experience as a psychotherapist, my observations as I traveled, watched and sought to understand myself and others and the conclusions I have come to based on my 45 year quest to understand. The acronym WHIGO (pronounced whig-oe) comes in as I discuss how to make the changes one needs to be more happy. The idea is to change the question “What the hell is going on?”, which is usually accompanied by some unpleasant feelings, with “WHIGO”. Just say the word WHIGO and you will see how difficult it is to feel unpleasant feelings or have negative thoughts with this word. It just somehow seems to be its nature. It’s a fun, smile-producing word.

I first thought about writing this book in 1986 when I was working as a psychotherapist at a mental health center. I went into a staff meeting at the end of one day saying I was going to write a book called What the Hell is Going On? because it was the question I heard asked all day long. Everyone in the meeting laughed but there was a part of me that knew I was serious. This is because it was already my journey, and therefore life’s work and mission or quest, to find a real way to help people decrease their unhappiness and thereby bring a more stable happiness to their life. So after much searching throughout the world my journey to become mature and knowledgeable enough to write this book has now come to fruition. I believe I can now walk what I talk, which to me is essential in order to be “for real” in the presentation of my understanding of the answers I found on my journey.

My second book, tentatively called Staying Open In a Closed World, is now in progress. Stay tuned for updates on this work. 

"In this book, What the Hell is Going On? The Question, Our Secrets, Some Answers, M.L has taken the essence of her life questioning and put it into a pleasing, extremely readable form. She takes the suffering she has endured and the answers she has found for humanity and puts it in a form that all of us can understand. Not only that, her answers are good and make sense because she did it herself and you can see that in her and in her life. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is questioning and wanting answers."

-Gyalten Wangmo aka Ann Kane, MA, Buddhist Nun and Psychotherapist

"M.L. is a warm and wonderful person with real insights into the fundamental roots of our suffering and how to get free. Her book brings her own life experience and growth to bear as well as the wisdom drawn from her Masters in Divinity, her years as a practicing therapist, and her experience living abroad in different cultures. This is a must read (and put into action) book." (2011)

- James Blumenthal, PhD, Professor of Buddhist Studies, Oregon State University and Maitripa College, author of The Ornament of the Middle Way and co-author with Geshe Lhundup Sopa of Steps on the Path.