The Power of Meaning

Life isn’t supposed to be happy, it’s supposed to be meaningful.

We are all somewhere dealing with this “hollowness” inside us. And we try very very, I repeat, very hard to forget that it exists. Seeking constant stimulation through work or other activities, spending time with people, spending money on things that we don’t really need, constantly being laden with work to never have the time to deal with this unnerving feeling.. Well, these are just a few ways with which we escape this feeling. But who are we kidding? No matter how hard we try, this feeling has the resilience to always come back and remind us that we aren’t okay. However, the moment it comes back, we become desperate to find something that shuts it down — this can either be through certain self-sabotaging habits such as smoking or binging on food, or via something “healthy”such as, exercising. Now, I’d argue that even though exercising here has a healthier outcome, it still isn’t the best thing to do at that moment.

What this feeling is desperately demanding from you is acknowledgement.

You know the funny thing about running away from something? The “running away” never stops until we face it. So, we can keep running away all we want, but the moment we slow down to catch a breath, lo and behold!

So, what do we do? We accept that this feeling exists. We stop running away from it and start sitting with it. Distance yourself from it, imagine it sitting in front of you and talking to it. Apologise for repeatedly avoiding it, and ask it what it needs you to do. The goal here is to give it the attention that it deserves.

We look at positive emotions as something of importance, we treat them as if they’re the most significant elements that can emerge from life itself. We strive to achieve them, we yearn to feel them. And in that pursuit, we dismiss the importance of negative emotions — the importance of very human elements in our lives.

One of my favourite statements to utter to myself is: Human life entails suffering. It reminds me what life truly is, how it is meant to be lived. The moment we acknowledge the negativity in our lives, we start giving meaning to it. And once something has meaning, it instantly becomes significant and worth enduring.