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Simone de Beauvoir once said: “To declare that existence is absurd is to deny that it can ever be given a meaning; to say that it is ambiguous is to assert that its meaning is never fixed, that it must be constantly won.”
To feel like life is somehow accidental or without meaning forms one of the primary symptoms of depression: a loss of pleasure, a loss of connection, a loss of hope. It would be difficult to live happily beset by the idea that life is meaningless. Meaning is how you create your life and give it purpose. Meaning is very personal – giving life meaning involves being aware of your choices, being cognisant that simple things can be meaningful. Having purpose helps you find meaning.
Finding purpose is actually one of the most rewarding activities in being human – yet how do you strive toward purposefulness? Fully? Partially? Just as an aside? Consider the worst case scenario: if life is pointless, doesn’t that free you? Can’t you play, Be, celebrate moments of existence because one day your life will end – it will be gone. We spend much of our time avoiding this fact. The beauty of the moment, if consciously realised and acknowledged, attended to and engaged, offers freedom. Our time here is precious – literally irreplaceable. So live authentically. Use your existential freedom to engage with life and experiment with new perspectives. Stuck in traffic? Instead of getting angry practice following your breath, attending to it freely, without changing it – just noticing it. The breath is the anchor of the mind. By attending to your breath, your mind and your ‘self’ – the time at the traffic lights will not be wasted.
Do you look for patterns in your life? Do things happen to you that seem to connect one thing to the other? This is part of your creative voice: you can certainly put things to work as fodder for your own personal evolution. When you read something, record your thoughts – start a journal. Give voice to your wanderings through the world, your musings, your connections, the things that happen out of the blue – your opportunities.
Uncertainty need not be a bad thing, although many people struggle with tolerating a sense of ambiguity. Many clinical disorders, particularly those involving anxiety are in part defined by people’s desire for clarity and closure – the sense they have ‘completed’ something. Raising tolerance for ambiguity – being prepared to acknowledge your fear or your anxiety is potentially an opportunity for learning new self-care skills for example.
The mind seeks meaningfulness. The mind is wonderfully organic and constructive by nature – it seeks to find threads, looks to follow and find connections. Trials and difficulties often set us on a course for discovering. The expectations of this journey are yours to make – be it one simple lesson to learn in life.
Of yourself, hope to live as fully as possible. Play around with the idea of acknowledging and opening to the difficult parts of life rather than struggling with them. Difficulties don’t just detract from your quality of life they can give you a challenge to overcome. There can be opportunities in the ‘shadow side’ of life if you are willing to let go of the struggle and learn acceptance, mindfulness, letting-go, and putting the shadow side to work for you creatively.
