These are big questions, aren't they? Philosophers for centuries have debated what the meaning of life is, and there are lots of different schools of thought on the subject. Everyone seems to have a different idea about what is important in life, and how to go about getting it. Hedonists live life in pursuit of pleasure, materialists seek to increase their material gains, others find meaning in their religion. Nihilists believe that nothing matters, while others believe that meaning is entirely subjective and everything means what you want it to mean. Who is right? Is anyone?
When you are feeling anxious, depressed or unhappy, it can become hard to find the meaning in your own life. Sometimes the difficult feelings we are coping with are so overwhelming that they make it hard to find our purpose. Often in this situation, the things we used to enjoy lose their appeal, or we just don't have the time or energy to do them anymore. This can lead to feelings of frustration and discontentment, among others. It can lead to us spending more time doing things that we don't actually get any enjoyment from. It can leaving us feeling stuck, or hopeless. So what can we do about it?
Well, making massive lifestyle changes like doing HIIT workouts at 5am might work for you (and good luck to you if it does), although for most of us sudden and drastic changes will probably only last a short time before we revert back to our old ways. In order to make changes which increase your sense of enjoyment and purpose, it is useful to first take a bit of time to reflect on what you think is important in life. Try to work out what your values are.
One approach I often use with clients when working on finding meaning and purpose in life is Acceptance and Commitment therapy. In this approach we talk about values as being our compass, pointing us in the right direction towards a life filled with meaning. Along the way we might have goals - get a house, get married, have a good job - but these are more like destinations on the route, rather than the underlying direction of travel. For example, it is the difference between travelling west and going to Glasgow. Once in Glasgow, I know I am there, I have reached my goal - but if my underlying value is to travel west, I can always keep going, and as I do I will continue to find meaning and purpose. There is no endpoint to travelling west; it is the direction of travel which I find meaningful and will try to continue to follow. Obstacles might come up that take me off course along the way, but if I check in every so often to make sure I am still working towards my value (that is, travelling west), I will continue to find meaning and purpose.
To give another example, if I decide that being creative is an underlying value for me, something which I think is important and which I would like to incorporate into my life, I can work towards bringing more creativity into my life every day. It might just be in small ways, such as making something creative for dinner, or it might be something bigger, like taking a drawing class or starting a craft project. The important thing is setting aside some time each day to work towards this value. I might identify opportunities in my everyday life which will encourage this - going to an art gallery, talking to a creative friend who I find inspiring, watching a youtube tutorial on how to paint.
So why not give it a try? Take a few minutes to sit down and have a think about the things that are important to you. Then think about how often you do things which promote this value in your life. Do you do it regularly, sometimes or not at all? It doesn't matter where you are starting from, you can always find ways of increasing your valued actions. For example, if kindness was the value, you can always look for new ways of being kind - to others, to yourself. There is no endpoint. By picking one or two values and committing to increasing them in your life, you can work towards increasing your sense of meaning and purpose as well.
So, to answer the question I set at the start: I think life has the meaning you choose to give it, and if you can work towards the values you hold to be important, you will increase your sense of purpose and meaning. I would be interested to hear other views on this, so please feel free to leave me a comment about it!
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