Finding Meaning.
At some point we search for meaning in our lives, and in finding it we find freedom.
According to Viktor Frankl, despair is suffering minus meaning. One of the things I know about the human brain and how we work, is that we humans are meaning making machines. We can turn anything into a moment of meaning, which then shapes how we feel about it. The meaning we put on something comes from our beliefs values, ideas, and past experiences. Someone who is afraid to be happy might believe that a moment great joy means that sorrow is around the corner. Someone who believes that their life is part of a grander purpose might believe a time of sorrow means that there is something in this time of sorrow to nurture that higher purpose.
We all want our lives to have meaning. We want to know that time we spent on this little blue ball was worth something, because we’ll never get that time back. We also want to know that struggle wasn’t meaningless and in the end we made a difference. But we don’t always know the meaning until we’re on the other side of the experience. In times like this, we can’t prove there is no meaning… so instead, move forward as if it does. Because even if you have little faith right now, could it still be that life has a larger vision for you?
