How to Overcome Meaninglessness in Life

In Viktor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning, we learn how Holocaust prisoners were more likely to survive if they felt there was some meaning to their senseless circumstances. In this evil place and time where life had no meaning, to survive meant finding and creating meaning wherever they could. For many, becoming hopeless meant certain death.

Meaning and hope are like oxygen for the soul. So how do we find meaning? What is the meaning of life? Why does life feel meaningless sometimes? And what can we do to create a meaningful life? I answer these questions and more in today's podcast.

Please enjoy other episodes where I share meditation techniques, tips and spiritual lessons from around the world for peaceful and stress-free living. Remember to subscribe to stay up-to-date.

*****
If you ever feel like my words brought a change in your life, and want to show your SUPPORT for what I am doing, click here.

Find all of my BOOKS for wherever you are on your spiritual journey: https://www.eastwesticism.org/spiritual-meditation-books/

Want to gift a book to a prisoner? Go here.

Transcript

0:02  
Welcome to path to peace with Todd Perelmuter. I'm your host, Todd Perelmuter our world is a projection of our collective consciousness. The more peace we bring into our lives, the more peace we bring into this world. So let the transformation begin. 

0:25  
Today's question is, how to overcome the meaninglessness in my life? Now, usually what's going on here? When we ask ourself, this question is we are feeling a great sense of dread, misery, and hopelessness. And we don't really want, meaning, what we want is that zest for life, that love and joy, that pop us out of bed in the morning, that shoots us out. And we're not even doing it, you know, life is flowing through us, and we are going with the flow. 

1:20  
But at other times, sometimes because of a life situation that happened, the loss of someone we loved, or the loss of a job. And sometimes, when it comes to meaninglessness, it can even just come from reading too much philosophy, thinking too much about existentialism, and existential concepts, thinking of our own mortality. And we kind of put ourselves into a mental space, where all we can do is talk ourselves out of feeling any joy, any hope. 

2:17  
And our mind just keeps wanting to go to the darkest places imaginable, which is that we won't exist in 100 years, or that Earth won't exist in a billion years. And so we think, what is the meaning what is the point? What is the purpose, and for anyone who feels like life is meaningless. There is surprising, perhaps, for me to say, but a lot of evidence that we can find that will point to this emptiness in our lives, that no one will remember us in 1000 years that an asteroid could wipe out all life in an instant. 

3:17  
And why are we paying mortgages? And why are we struggling and working so hard? There was a great quote, I heard recently, I can't remember where it's from. But it was, of all the 100 trillion planets in our universe, I had to be born on the one with mortgages. 

3:45  
Of course, we are also on the only one with chocolate so good and bad. And so it's just with one certain way of seeing the world around us, which when only viewed through a lens of searching for meaning, we can find none. And we see species and plants, and they are all reproducing and creating offspring. 

4:23  
And we just wonder what is the point of it all. And while it may seem scary, and it may seem depressing, it is actually the window that we can peer through in order to find the truth of our existence. And the truth is, everything in the universe is meaningless until A life form gives it meaning. 

5:06  
So if we are searching for the meaning of life outside of us, we will never find it because every thing in our universe is empty. It is empty of matter and stuff. It is empty of inherent meaning or any independent qualities at all, because everything came from something, and that something came from something. And so, in any thing, you will find that that thing isn't in the thing. 

5:50  
And it gets a little confusing, but bear with me. If some future species found a million year old iPhone from our time, they would not know what it is. They might think it's a mirror, a piece of glass, a strange shaped rock from a primitive civilization. But without the branding and the labeling and the money that Apple spent into telling us that it's the iPhone, without the exact right electrical outlet to plug it into to get the exact right wattage into the phone. And then to know exactly how to turn it on and use it. 

6:45  
All of this is how we know that an iPhone is an iPhone. And even if you know how to use it, you still couldn't find the iPhone within the iPhone, which is to say, is the iPhone, the sum of its parts? And we would have to say, No, it is a combination of the sum of its parts, plus the functionality that it has. So I can use it as a smartphone. Plus, it has all the components as a smartphone. 

7:25  
But again, these are just two ideas. In reality, it's glass, metal, precious minerals and rare earth metals. But even then, that's not what it is. It's an energy, its vibrating waves of energy and frequencies. Its protons and neutrons. But it's beyond that it is a mostly empty space. Briefly expressed from the quantum field, into this thing we call iPhone. millions of people's life work has gone into it. 

8:21  
And it has completely transformed the world. The way we communicate, how we work, and how we entertain ourselves. And so this tiny little piece of glass, metal and plastic, this empty space of energy that doesn't even exist the way we think it does, has created infinite amounts of meaning in people's lives. 

9:02  
People creating art, people finding their future husbands and wives on dating apps, moving films, watched, beautiful sunsets photographed and the list of ways that technology can make people's lives more meaningful. This is just one of the many ways to show that human beings are the meaning makers. The question isn't, is life meaningless. The question is for who is life meaningless? And how can we help those people

9:55  
see ways to create meaning to them? find fulfilment in everything they do, and to feel that their life is infused with purpose and value. And the fact of the matter is, we are only limited by what we can imagine. The more meaningful relation chips that we create in our lives, the more meaning we have in our lives, the more meaningful art that we can make. And most importantly, the more meaning that we can create for other people in their lives, the more we can help others feel like they are living a valuable, meaningful life. 

10:54  
This is the exponential growth factor for meaning in life. It's important and wonderful to do things that we feel are meaningful. And those things tend to be developing those messy, beautiful relationships tends to come from introspection, contemplation, and reflection in nature. 

11:29  
Oftentimes, that immensity of looking at the stars, which makes us feel meaningless, and unimportant, is that same awe inspiring wonder, that makes the universe feel magical, and special. And so, that is really one of the most incredible ways to infuse meaning in our lives, because we are simultaneously sensing that emptiness, which is that reality, and that, simultaneously, we are that miracle of life, the gift of meaning to the entire universe, who without us, it would be meaningless. 

12:22  
But whatever it is, that is food for your soul, that makes you sing, that fills our day in the most joyous way possible. That is your meaning. And it tends not to come from consumption, consumption of experiences, or consumption of pleasures, foods and drinks and material pleasures. It tends to come from creation. Consumption often feels empty, watching a movie, or TV. 

13:12  
Eating food for pleasure, they tend to provide a very brief moment of pleasure, followed by a sense of emptiness, longing and craving. A lot of times people who feel like their lives are meaningless. They are often stuck in cycles of consumption. 

13:35  
And what this looks like is when we turn to whether it's video games, TV, social media, food, drugs, alcohol, sex gambling, whenever we turn to these things, to fill that emptiness inside, to make us happy. This only leads to more emptiness, to more meaninglessness, because there is an emptiness there is a vicious, never ending cycle of pleasure, followed by unhappiness, followed by seeking out more pleasure, followed by more unhappiness and we become trapped and stuck in these addiction cycles. 

14:30  
But when we start to create creation has meaning within it. And whether we are putting in effort and time and our undivided full attention towards whether it is creating art or music Whether it's creating a healthier body, through fitness and nutrition, whether it is creating relationships, or enhancing one's own skills, and abilities, we are infusing reward with work. And this is the wholeness, this is the completeness of life, which is to say, work with reward. 

15:35  
And when we over consume, we are shifting the balance of skills towards laziness. And we are further lessening our own ability to create that meaning to create that rich and remarkable life. Because we are not working those mind muscles of nurturing joy, and peace, meaning and purpose. 

16:16  
And so to create a meaningful life, is to practice creating that meaning and to build that muscle, so that that momentum, that snowball effect, can build in build, so that every day becomes more meaningful than the last and every year becomes more meaningful than last because meaning builds, the more meaning we have in our lives, the more people we share our blessings and our sorrows with. 

16:56  
The more that each little bit of meaning we add to our lives, makes us more joyful, more willing to do new things and to keep growing, because ultimately, growing is what a meaningful life is all about. Because it's very easy to just consume. 

17:27  
And it is easy to be very passive in life. Whereas growth takes effort, and it takes work. But that is why the reward is so much more worth a break from work is so much more refreshing, then, a day we had off, and didn't do anything at all. So we have to put ourselves out there, we have to try thing after thing, after thing until we find the thing that we like to do, that adds meaning to our lives. And the more we keep trying and trying, the more things we find that make our lives meaningful. 

18:25  
And the easiest way to really find that meeting is to stop searching for meaning. Because nothing searched for, that we already have can ever be found. It is already within us. The more you chase, the further you get. And so the more we think about it, and fixate on it, the more stress and negative we feel. 

19:01  
So, instead tune in to the emptiness recognize that there is no meaning in anything. And this will lead you to your true self, which is to say that non physical essence of who you are this engine of meaning and you will see that it's not in the stuff. It all comes from you. And so if there is a sense of meaninglessness, you have put the meaning of meaninglessness on to life.

19:49  
And just as we have put that meaningless label on life, we can also start to Find those things we love, that make life worth living, the art and the beauty and the music of this world, the people and the foods and the fragrances that make this experience so rich, and the more we fill our lives, with those things that give it meaning, and lasting joy, automatically, the more meaningful our lives become. 

20:33  
This engine of meaning, this drive of intuition within us that points us towards where we are meant to be, is our greatest gift as a species. Because like every other species on this planet, we are driven by an innate sense of what to do. The more we listen to that inner drive, the more we quiet the mind and listen to the heart. And the more we feel, instead of think that love for life, that every living being on this planet has, even if it's obscured by depression, and sadness, the more that light of love shines through us. 

21:38  
And everything we do, automatically, naturally becomes infused with that joy. And no matter what we are doing, when we are fully doing it, when we are fully present and not in our heads becomes a vehicle to meaning it becomes our passageway, every task, every single moment in our lives, becomes part of our journey to meaning. Because a meaningful life is not a destination. It is an accumulation of meaningful moments. 

22:29  
And in this way, through a little bit of creativity and effort as we let ourselves be drawn to the things we're naturally drawn to. And as we let go of all of these stories we have about meaning, and we can just be in the present moment and witness and experience it we can see the depth in each moment, it can bring us a peace and joy, no matter what is happening around us. 

23:08  
And we can experience infinite meaning that are infinite consciousnesses are able to create, we simply have to recognize that all meaning and concepts start in the mind to let go of concepts such as not having meaning or needing to get meaning. And instead, make sure our lives are filled with the things that bring us joy, with the peace and stillness to reflect and process our thoughts and emotions, to accept this reality of emptiness around us. 

24:13  
And most importantly, try to create joy and meaning for others. Because there really is nothing more meaningful than that. 

24:32  
You've been listening to path to peace with Todd Perelmuter. Being here and putting in this important and noble work is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself and others. If you found this podcast even a little helpful. Please make sure to leave a review so it can reach others who may be in need. And remember, the path to peace starts with a single step.