Realizing Your Meaning: 5 Ways to Live a Meaningful Life

The Terror Management Theory (TMT) suggests that features that remind us of our mortality are likely to heighten fear around death (Routledge & Juhl, 2010). However, TMT also suggests that a life “imbued with meaning and purpose” can help stave off such angst. To the existentialist, how to create meaning in life our sense of meaning and purpose comes from what we do. For Camus, as with his contemporary Jean-Paul Sartre, existentialism concerns itself with the uniqueness of the human condition (Sartre, 1964). According to the existentialist formula, life has no inherent meaning.

However, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways for older adults to meet new people and form new relationships. Experimental laboratory studies have demonstrated a temporal relationship between positive mood and https://ecosoberhouse.com/ sense of meaning. Inducing a positive mood results in higher reports of meaning (for a review, see Heintzelman & King, 2014). Although social connections are important, not all social relationships are equal.

Practice accepting where you are right now.

Sometimes, seeing the bigger picture or recognizing our place in the broader scheme can bring great insights and even play a role in our experience of meaning in life (Hicks & King, 2007). In Japanese culture, to find meaning and purpose in life is to find one’s ikigai. We have a fantastic and in-depth exercise called Identifying Your Ikigai, which takes you through a series of steps to assess and help you find your fulfilling meaning in life. It’s easy to neglect social relationships in favor of alone time (which is also important) or work deadlines, but promoting these relationships will have a more positive impact in the long term. If you are the type of person who forgets to see friends or family, add a reminder to your calendar. These findings also tie in with the negative impact of ostracism on the sense of meaning (Williams, 2007).

Now a new book takes a stab at figuring out just what pursuing a meaningful life entails. The book, though only loosely tied to research, is mostly an engaging read about how people find meaning in life through “four pillars” of meaning. Living a meaningful life can be facilitated by a greater awareness of core values and the thoughts behind them. The insights provided by understanding personal values can help regain a sense of meaning to improve motivation. Trying to understand why our life is meaningful may serve a function when life becomes incomprehensible, but ultimately it may never yield a satisfying answer. It is all around us—in our relationships, work, and spiritual and religious beliefs, as well as through the appreciating of life itself.

How can finding your purpose help you accomplish your goals?

For example, if your goal is to spend more time reading but you don’t make time to read one week, maybe your « consequence » is that you must donate to a charitable organization. You can also define a « costly consequence, » Strack says, if you don’t work toward your goals. The consequence doesn’t have to be negative, but it should incentivize you. « A lot of people have some good ideas for 2024, but a lot of people will fail, » Strack says. « Out of this long list of ideas you commit to a handful of strategic choices, » he says.

• Having a more meaningful life often means making real changes to your life.
• Finding a sense of purpose can seem like finding a needle in a haystack.
• Consider writing a journal entry about what you enjoyed or tell your partner/friends/family members about your new hobby.
• While suffering is an unavoidable part of life, Frankl encourages us to revel in our ability to choose how we respond to suffering.