In this article I will try to cover the topic the meaninglessness of life, and at the same time answer the question of What is the meaning of life is concluded. Paradoxical? The whole point is that man is a relative phenomenon. And life as such is absolute. Let's try to cover the topic of meaninglessness and meaning of life, both in relative and absolute terms.
Why exactly human life meaningless? Because it passes. Everything is fleeting, fleeting, transitory. We live now and experience myriads of “important” events and conditions. And all this, after a hundred years, will become nothing. Billions of people lived before us. Everything they suffered and enjoyed was gone forever. Who remembers them? Only a few are known, but even those we know only by hearsay. Perhaps for this reason a person craves fame. Thanks to this illusion, he prolongs his life. However, on the planetary and cosmic level, even centuries are only a short moment. Against the background of eternity - nothing at all. In what meaning of life, if it inevitably goes into oblivion? Sadly? That's in vain! Let's move on.

In order not to beat around the bush, I will pose a direct question. Does life have an objective meaning? Or meaninglessness– the only truth we have to put up with? The answer to both questions, from my point of view, is positive.

All we know is ours about reality. Every thought, concept, idea has meaning. Understanding occurs when we comprehend the meaning of an idea. What, exactly, is meaning anyway? This is the very essence of thought. Meaning– this is the value of the variable, which is our thought. Can we call a thought real? After all, a person is not able to hold it. The very nature of thinking reflects the fleeting nature of life. As soon as a thought comes, it is no longer there. And all we know is only our thoughts about the world. Meaning of life exists at the level of thought, and at the same level it dissolves and manifests itself in meaninglessness.

People tend to believe that the more seriously they take life, the closer this perception is to reality. In fact, this seriousness expressed cosmic sadness our sad personality - like a childish grimace, which we, in our naivety, take seriously as something real, important and trustworthy. The child is crying and he is serious. He doesn't realize how baseless his idea is. Our adult children's games make us worry and take what is happening seriously. This invaluable experience is necessary in order to eventually see that we are free from it and were never truly bound by it.

What is the meaning of human life? After all, we are people, and regarding us, perhaps the right question should sound different. What is a person needed for? And if the world is as limited as it sees it, then man is a random phenomenon, and then there is no meaning. We were born by our parents. However, we were lucky, and the parents were not so selfish as to consider the child their creation, which was created solely for their purposes. After all, they themselves were born and raised in the same way, and allow us to become independent. IN social society As a person grows up, he begins to realize that now he himself can decide how and for what to live. And this experience of independence hints to us at the meaninglessness of life, because meaning can only exist when we live not for ourselves, but for the sake of something beyond our little personality.

If man was created by God, then , meaning of life connected with the Creator's purpose. In this case, the meaning that is embedded in our lives is the reason why we were created. And since all the best within us manifests itself as our soul develops, perhaps the purpose of our existence is manifested in its fruits. Perhaps love, which we place at the head of all experiences without any vulgar shades, is that cherished answer. In any case, from this angle, the meaning of life is in the development of consciousness. .

However, if we talk about life as such, on an absolute level it is neither meaningful nor painful. meaninglessness. All this is just the work of the mind. Life as such has a direct bearing on this. The closer we come to an awareness of reality, the deeper the understanding that there is neither good nor bad in either meaning or its absence. There is no real duality in this. All this is the work of our mind here and now.

Pointlessness - the same illusion as meaning, because without meaning it cannot exist. If meaninglessness really existed, we would simply have nothing to talk about. Is the donut hole real? Can we say that a donut hole is such a heavy, doomed state of cosmic sadness? Can we say that it is equivalent to nirvana? Can we say that she is at least something? Or maybe this is a life preserver? When we talk about meaninglessness, all we really mean is dissolving meaning. It still exists, although it dissolves in our minds, so for now there is something to talk about. But as soon as it dissolves, catharsis, freedom and relief sets in!

Pointlessness- this is simply the destruction of our attachment, devaluation, or parting with what made our life meaningful at one time or another. It’s hard for us while the attachment is crumbling. During this time, we experience sadness, loss, and emptiness where the objects of our affection once were. But when attachment is already destroyed, we gain freedom. When we lose, we experience the loss, but when we let go of the meaning completely, the pain goes away. We free ourselves from the burden of meaning and from the weight of its dissolution, which seemed to us to be meaninglessness. When attachment is broken, relief comes. Against the backdrop of eternity, all good things pass. All bad things pass! We are eternal wanderers, eternal spectators, eternal players. And even if you don’t have faith in this, and life ends after the death of the body, worries about this don’t make any sense. Will longing bring happiness closer?

Excerpt from Victor Pelevin’s novel “T”:

“Lin Tzu, in response to a question about the nature of Buddha, said that this is a hole in a latrine. Soloviev believed that this was the most accurate explanation that could be given. Imagine, he said, a dirty and filthy outhouse. Is there anything pure in it? Eat. It's a hole in its center. Nothing can stain it. Everything will just fall down through it. The hole has no edges, no boundaries, no shape - only the toilet seat has all this. And at the same time, the entire temple of uncleanness exists solely thanks to this hole. This hole is the most important thing in the latrine, and at the same time something that has nothing to do with it at all. Moreover, what makes a hole a hole is not its own nature, but what is built around it by people: the outhouse. But the hole simply does not have its own nature - at least until the moment when the lama, sitting on the toilet seat, begins to divide it into three kayas.”

The example is rough. But quite bright and largely accurate. The more we search meaning of life, the further we are from real awareness of the meaning of what is happening here and now. We ourselves give meaning to what happens. And when the feeling meaninglessness will be experienced quite intensely and deeply, we can intuitively choose what and how to make meaningful, “important”, and what to devalue and leave forgotten in the past. This flexibility is a reward for lived experience.

Growing up, we learn the rules of behavior in society, and also adopt from our parents their attitude towards “bad” character traits. As a result, a “forbidden fruit” effect is created, the attractiveness of which is not always resisted; violation of the rules causes a feeling of shame and has a destructive effect on the integrity of the individual.

IN greeting cards and in poetry there is traditionally a wish happy life. Even if the words are not a tribute to politeness, but sound absolutely sincere, not everyone and not always can explain what will be happiness for specific person. The traditional “hard-working husband, obedient children, full house”? Life shows that not everything is so simple.

Life story

Here is a typical example: Ira is an ordinary girl “from a good family.” She graduated from school with honors and entered the institute recommended by her parents to study the prestigious specialty of economics. After university, under the patronage of her father, she got a job in a bank. Then a husband appeared, who received the full approval of his parents as a “promising businessman,” and children were born.

Twenty years later, Irina Ivanovna occupies a certain position, her husband owns a business that brings not exorbitant, but stable income. An apartment, a car, a vacation abroad, children placed in prestigious universities.

This is happiness, but... For some reason, life seems meaningless! The children live separately and are not often spoiled with visits. I would like it to appear free time spend with my husband, but he is busy with business, and there are fewer and fewer common topics for conversation. Career ladder has reached the “ceiling”, the work is boring, monotonous and you want to quit, but what will your colleagues, friends, parents think?

It was after the thought “what would my dad, who hired me at this bank, think if I quit,” that Irina began to realize that something was wrong with her life. I began to remember that at school I even crammed my least favorite subjects “excellently” so as not to upset my parents. The profession of an economist always seemed boring, but my mother insisted that it was financial and prestigious.

It was my dad who introduced me to my future husband. Of course, then she was young and stupid, and her parents were wise and wished only the best for her, and she is very grateful to them, but the habit of looking at the opinions of others was also instilled by her parents. They created a certain pattern, from which she was then afraid to retreat all her life, lest something terrible and irreparable happen. She even chose the car not to her liking, but one that “will correspond to the status of a leading economist.”

But the most main question came later: “what to do now?”... How to understand what in her life is dictated by the desire to meet the expectations and stereotypes of others, and what is real, what she really is, what she wants and what then is the meaning and happiness in life?

"True" and "false" self

Irina’s story is quite typical, not only for our country, but throughout the world. Moreover, psychologists have long and comprehensively studied the versatility of human nature.

Carl Jung has a theory of the “shadow” personality, which includes primitive, socially condemned character traits. Greed, envy, jealousy, anger, selfishness, eroticism, thirst for power - all this is usually denied, feared, and overcome in oneself. However, these traits are an integral part of human nature and, according to Jung, can either be found with their “shadow” mutual language, or become its victim.

The no less famous psychologist E. Erikson fully agrees with his Swiss colleague and puts forward the theory of “identity crisis.” According to her, “dark” aspirations are inherent in people by nature; they attract, but also frighten at the same time.

Growing up, we learn the rules of behavior in society, and also adopt from our parents their attitude towards “bad” character traits. As a result, a “forbidden fruit” effect is created, the attractiveness of which is not always resisted; violation of the rules causes a feeling of shame and has a destructive effect on the integrity of the individual.

But, perhaps, the most understandable and detailed explanation of the “true” and “false” self is given by the British pediatrician and psychoanalyst D. Winnicott. He came to the conclusion that from birth a person is at the level unconditioned reflexes forms protection against environment(including on the psychological plane) in the form of a reaction to a potential threat to comfort and well-being.

In children it looks like this: if basic needs the child is not perceived by his parents, he concludes that they are not significant. And here the first substitution of concepts occurs. Trying to get the attention of people on whom he depends, the child learns to perceive their desires and try to comply with them, suppressing his natural aspirations.

It seems to him that Inconsistency with your parents' self-image is a threat to your own well-being. Disappointing mom and dad means losing their love and care. Considering that adults often strive to self-actualize at the expense of children (I couldn’t, so let my son become a great hockey player), emotional lies only accumulate, instilling the habit of hiding one’s “true” self.

The instinct of self-defense is transformed into a “false” self, which over time is capable of completely isolating the “true” self not only from others, but also from the carrier himself. As a result, the sense of one's own identity begins to erode. This is exactly what happened to our heroine. At some point, she could no longer deceive herself and realized that she had to do something with her life so as not to lose herself.

Bringing Authenticity Back

It is worth noting that a person experiences the most vivid acquisition of individual identity in adolescence.age e (youthful maximalism), which does not mean that the “shadow” self will not be able to express itself at any period of life (midlife crisis).

The point here is that constant suppression of identity affects the integrity of the individual. Constant control over oneself and reacting to the mood of others is hard, exhausting work, taking a lot of energy and leading to stress and depression. But restoring an oppressed identity is not an easy task. Many people perceive such experiences exclusively negatively, which is fundamentally wrong.

Most often, a reunion with the “shadow” self occurs according to the following pattern: “I tried to remake myself, to become what others wanted me to see, but I didn’t do what I wanted, and I missed the best moments in life.” And it’s hard to argue with this, however Do not forget that self-respect is also a part of personality.

Therefore, whatever the life you have lived, it is yours, just as the life ahead will be yours. Recognizing and comprehending your mistakes, you should not regret what was lost, but seek strength for new achievements. The right attitude when finding your identity is a motivator for self-searching, a source of energy for implementing new ideas, a way to give impetus to the imagination and find the answer to the question of who a person is and who he really wants to become.

Recognizing a problem means half solving it

In the relevant literature you can find various ways and methods for finding one’s identity. It is recommended to keep a diary and write letters to yourself, both to the future and to the past.

If you have a family, be sure to discuss emerging feelings, fears and worries. Search for solutions together, gradually becoming like-minded people again, helping both yourself and your partner understand your and his inner world, realize what has been done life path, outline the milestones of the further road.“Expand” consciousness, learn to look at familiar things from the outside, rediscovering their essence.published

Lack of objective meaning

Today I will work as Captain Obvious and remind you that on individual level life has no objective meaning. After all, what do we call the meaning of any action? – most often, the goal that we hope to achieve with the help of this action. Objective the meaning, naturally, can be checked: the test question “so what?”

So I leave the house, clear the snow from the car, start the engine, press the pedals - so what? And I come to work! That is, these actions have a meaning: to get to work. It is not difficult to verify the achievement of this goal; it is completely objective. I can ignore the fact that using the car itself gives me pleasure and decide that the point of these actions is to get me to some end point of the journey. (Although Muscovites are well aware that this goal is easier, cheaper and faster to achieve in the metro; so, in essence, it’s still a matter of my personal pleasure.)

If we try to objectively consider the more global sequence of actions usually called “life,” we will discover something unpleasant: logical analysis irrefutably shows that the end point of this journey is death. He lived and lived, he proved theorems, he wrote poetry, he discovered continents, he admired the sunset... so what? - and died!

Since the statement “the objective meaning of life is death” looks like an oxymoron, materialists have to agree that life has no objective meaning - although all the religions of the world, in general, follow exactly this path: they propose that the meaning of life is preparation for death. To get to heaven, you need a certain sequence of actions during your life, period.

This elegant answer has only one logical problem: the existence of heaven cannot be objectively proven. As a result, this “objective” answer turns into a completely subjective one: it can satisfy only those for whom the existence of heaven makes sense. Simply put, those who believe in him. It turns out that individual life does not have any objective, provable meaning that could logically answer the question “So what?”: objectively there is nothing at the end of this journey; all that is there is it subjectively. Fortunately, to discover the subjective meaning of life, your own, you do not have to wait until death. But.

Subjective meaning of life

Subjective- this means accessible only to the subject of the action himself. Biased, unprovable, logical methods undetectable, to the question “so what?” not responding. This meaning is the pleasure of fulfilling your own desires.

It’s like in my example with a car: in fact, going to work in this way serves my pleasure, and not just achievement ultimate goal, since the shortest way to reach the goal is to take the subway. It’s the same with religions: the shortest way to get to heaven is to die sinless, in infancy. The meaning of a long life is not only achieving a result, but also enjoying the process. Subjective meaning, of course (about the objective one, we remember that it simply does not exist).

But here it is important not to oversimplify the very concept of pleasure. Pleasure is the satisfaction of a need, and depending on the level of human development, his needs are different. Some people get enough pleasure from satisfying everyday needs, and for such people the question of the meaning of life most often does not bother them at all. The very emergence of the question about the meaning of life, and even more so the crisis of meaninglessness, testifies to the emerging need for self-actualization, which does not receive its satisfaction. The pleasure of “serving humanity” may well be the meaning of life if this is a person’s own desire. And in no case can it if it is simply an obligation imposed by this most selfish humanity. But a person usually knows his duties by heart (whether he fulfills them is another question), but often he is not aware of his desires at all.

Why can a person not be aware of his own desires? – because he has cut himself off from himself, looks down on himself, from a dissociated position, every time he asks himself “so what?”: a question indicating a critical, objective perception. Subjective perception, that is, direct living of one’s own life, is lost. It is clear that there is no meaning in such a life.

Fulfilling your own desires

The meaning of life is to live. Live your life directly and fully own life. Being aware of your desires.

In relation to, say, the simplest desires like “eat an apple,” the absurdity of the question “so what?” is obvious: a person ate an apple, satisfied his desire, got pleasure from it, what else do you need? But in relation to more complex desires, this critical question sometimes seems to require an answer. This illusion is carefully cultivated in a person by family and school, which are rarely interested in desires - but vigilantly monitor the fulfillment of duties.

A person who has lost the meaning of life takes a critical position towards himself (hello, Inner Critic!): following family, school and society in general, he constantly asks himself: “So what?” - thereby devaluing your own, subjective value of your desires and your life. Because, as we have established, life has no objective meaning, and a chain of questions like “So what?” inevitably leads to death as the only objective outcome. Paradoxically, people who have lost the meaning of life often try to find it among the responsibilities offered by society such as “become successful” or “achieve wealth.” That is, they are trying to verify the subjective meaning by objective criteria, which is meaningless by definition.

Looking for the meaning of life in fulfilling duties is an absurd task precisely because duties are objective, and meaning is subjective.

In Greek, the word "meaning" has a common root with the word "love." Loss of meaning in life is a loss of contact with your inner love, a loss of connection with your soul. And the more dissociated the internal position is, the more often the questions “so what?” – the greater the loss of contact. People who devalue love with the question “so what?” are usually not loved by anyone - and, worse than that, they don’t love themselves either. Contact with your inner love is lost...

Conscious and unconscious

What to do? - usually asks a person who is convinced that fulfilling public duties cannot in any way constitute his own, personal meaning of life. And there is only one answer: to restore connection with your own soul and your deepest desires.

If things have already reached a crisis of meaninglessness, then, apparently, the process has gone quite far, and it will not be possible to get to the deepest desires right away: they are immersed somewhere in the unconscious, where it is difficult to find them. But any human ability can be improved by training - including the ability to discern and satisfy one's own desires. Be aware of them. Don’t “do like everyone else”, don’t entrust the search for your meaning to God or the state (“the meaning of a citizen’s life is to become a worthy member of society”), don’t limit yourself to fulfilling someone else’s desires - mother, wife or friend - but look for your own, and have the courage to approve them, and take responsibility for their implementation.

In addition to the difficulty of accessing own desires The difficulty here may also lie in the fact that the issue of responsibility is also a difficult issue, and often serves as the theme of an existential crisis, which I will consider next - related to freedom.

Exercise

Write down ten of your desires: exactly your own, those that resonate in your body with anticipation of pleasure. Read them out loud, adding after each phrase:
1. Yes, this is important.
2. Yes, in fact this is the meaning of my life.

If you have internal agreement with what was said, then great, you won’t face a crisis of meaninglessness. Now you can rank the meanings of your life to highlight the main and secondary ones, and look for opportunities to realize them.

If you fail to agree that your desires are important, then the exercise gives you the opportunity to get to know your Inner Critic, find out where it came from and what it wants. Understanding both sides of it internal conflict It can help to consciously untangle it. In most cases, this will require the help of a psychologist, but you can start on your own.

If the list includes self-destructive desires - such as the one that resonated with sweet anticipation in the body “the desire to smash your head against the wall” - then do not delay in visiting a psychotherapist. There is a high probability that an attempt to unravel on your own will only deepen the gap between consciousness and the unconscious.

Ecology of life: The meaning of life is simple. In the Eastern, namely in the Zen Buddhist tradition, there is such a wonderful tool for beating the crap out of too smart monastic heads, called the koan. Now I’ll tell you what it is, and then it will immediately become clear what the meaning of life has to do with it. The story is humorous - take a breath before reading.

There's a meaning. There is no point. There's a meaning. There is no point.

The meaning of life is simple. In the Eastern, namely in the Zen Buddhist tradition, there is such a wonderful tool for beating the crap out of too smart monastic heads, called the koan. Now I’ll tell you what it is, and then it will immediately become clear what the meaning of life has to do with it. The story is humorous - take a breath before reading.

The East is the land of introverts. Unlike the West, the type of contemplator, eternally immersed in introspection, predominates there, and not the type of doer, giving preference to the temptations and joys of the external world. And that's why psychological problems in the east they are also introverted.

If the practical West always lacks understanding of its soul, then the East easily gets lost in its wilds and loses contact with objective reality. For this reason, Western and Eastern psychotechnics are so different from each other. In the West they teach to open your inner world, and in the East - to open the world of surrounding reality.

For the same reason, the fashion for Eastern spiritual traditions is meaningless and sometimes dangerous for the West. The Western extrovert will not feel any great truth from the fact that he firmly feels the weight of the abbot’s staff on his back - he already knows very well that the world is solid and tangible. But for an Eastern monk, a lesson with a stick is extremely important - it reminds him in the most direct way, with real bruises and abrasions, of the materiality of this world.

Eastern psychotechnics are intended to straighten the minds of monks who are prone to drowning in the world of their eternal intellectual speculations. And the koan is one of these means.

Essentially, a koan is a trick question. For example, one of the most famous koans is “What does clapping one palm sound like?” The master asks this question to the student and expects a certain reaction from him, and if the reaction does not suit him, he beats the student with a stick and sends him to think again - longer.

And so the monk goes somewhere quiet, sits facing the wall in the lotus position and thinks what kind of bullshit is this - clapping with one palm. For emphasis, these thoughts are called meditation, but in reality he is just sitting and thinking about the white monkey. And the catch is that while the student “thinks” he will not be able to find the answer and will only receive new bruises on his back from his loving teacher.

A koan is an intellectual paradox. It acts like a stone thrown inside a complex clockwork mechanism of a thousand gears. As soon as the mind tries to chew it, teeth and sparks immediately rain down - the thinking machine begins to crunch and fall apart. And the student continues to be regaled with koans until his mind completely capitulates.

When this happens, the new koan no longer confuses the student. Instead, he throws out some kind of answering trick - as paradoxical as the question itself. For example, he hits his favorite teacher on the back with a stick. And then they celebrate and have fun together, because the main barrier that separated the student from the beauty and harmony of the world around him has now been broken.

Of course, not everything is so simple, but now it doesn’t matter.

The student's very first reaction to the koan shows where his center of mass is. If the student continues to live by his mind, then he takes the paradox seriously and immediately tries to solve it, but if he has already lost a little of his mind, then the paradox does not touch or touch him in any way - and this is a good sign.

So, back to the title. The question of the meaning of life is also a kind of koan. And most of all he comes across introverted dreamers who love to speculate about the fate of the whole world while sitting in their kitchen. Extroverts usually respond to this question more simply - “Get lost, I have more important things to do!”

A person can build many beautiful and poetic theories about what the meaning of life is, but for each of them in the east he would receive a blow on the back. Real life is always on the other pole. Wherever the mind goes in its thoughts, there is no longer life there - only ghostly reflections. Like a horizon that recedes at the same speed as you try to catch up with it.

Any intellectual answer to the question about the meaning of life is nonsense. The more theories are built about why life is needed and how it should be lived, the more you chase meaning, the more empty and boring life seems.

Life never conforms to the expectations that people try to place on it. She herself is the best teacher, who is always there and always ready to give a strong kick.

The pursuit of meaning must be stopped - then it will be possible to restore connection with life and feel the meaningfulness of every moment. The mind is an obstacle, not a subject to be sought.

This might interest you:

But it makes sense to use the question about the meaning of life only as an indicator - if a person is concerned about this question, it means he has wandered somewhere into the wilds and has deceived himself in some way. You need to hit him with a stick or make him coffee - your choice...

So what is your meaning in life? published

If life is meaningless, it's time to become a fool. Strange connection?

Philosophical questions, including the topic of the meaning of life, are a problem smart people. Sooner or later, a thinking person deepens into thoughts about purpose, the highest mission, the ultimate goal. Perhaps it is good that this dilemma remains unresolved, because, having reached its peak, what would a person do next? Is it better to be a joyful fool who doesn’t think about anything global? And how can you learn to be happy if the meaning of earthly joys does not want to be revealed?

Argue with yourself

This is one of psychological techniques. The psychotherapist turns the situation around in such a way that the patient begins to contradict himself and seek a refutation of his own thoughts. However, this technique can be carried out independently, without the help of a specialist. How to do it? A few steps:

1. form an initial phrase, a starting point from which the dialogue will continue. In this case, these are the words “Life is meaningless”;
2. add an argument in favor of the main statement, for example: “My life has no meaning because I do not contribute to this world”;
3. mentally create yourself as an opponent who believes in the opposite point of view;
4. find a counterargument to the initial phrase, for example: “I am useful because I help people / make someone happy / contribute my part to the development of the country (+ description of a specific example)”;
5. continue to build a dialogue according to the “argument-counterargument” scheme, alternately taking the side of both personal opinions.

The beauty of this method is that all the answers are in yourself, your own subconscious. At the same time, special skills and complex spiritual quests are not needed here. The main thing is to start, and the thought will flow like a river. Similar practices are also carried out with friends, when someone close to them defends the opinion of meaninglessness, and the person herself tries to convince a friend of the opposite. You can record the dialogue in a notebook or on a tape recorder, but oral practices without memorization are no less effective.

Witness the beauty

Living for the sake of beauty and goodness without seeing real manifestations of these qualities is unlikely to be possible. Before falling into depression and giving up on your existence, it’s better to see it all live. What is meant by beautiful:

• someone's sincere joy;
• manifestations of kindness, reactions to it;
• expression of the parental instinct - both in humans and animals;
• bud opening, flowering, especially in spring;
• natural landscapes untouched by man;
• completion of a masterpiece by a master;
• changes in appearance and inner world a person for the better;
• recovery or receiving something long-awaited, etc.

Perhaps the meaning of life is not a point, but a process. And someone will find it precisely in the creation or creation of beauty and goodness. To become part of something good, beautiful, to actively support it, to develop it - what is not a meaningful life?

Increase requests

Andrey is a university graduate, self-confident and sees no obstacles. His the main objective- become a lawyer. Six months after graduation, he gets a job as an assistant in a law office. In another six months good execution duties he is given the first case. A dream came true - the guy became a lawyer. What's next? And then the rookie sets another goal - to win the first case. Soon this desire will come true.

Recognition, client gratitude, new business. The next challenge is to successfully close a more complex hearing. Right away or not, the young man copes with this too. What then?

But nothing, routine, melancholy, a gray day is replaced by a similar one. There is no plan, no guidelines, but the thought appears that everything around is meaningless, and there is no point in living. What to do in such cases?

Set the bar higher. A lawyer may wish to receive a state award, go abroad to work, or become the hero of an article in a newspaper. The more difficult it is to implement a plan, the more life with all its victories is valued.

Take an “inventory” of the past

Does it seem like all the years you've lived have been in vain? However, it does not happen that a century is lived without leaving a trace. Behind every person there is a chain of his steps, some of them are kind, good. To remember them means to doubt the theory about the meaninglessness of one’s existence. How to do it:

1. create a calm, comfortable environment - dim the lights, turn on quiet, pleasant music, light incense sticks. Make sure that there are no distractions;
2. take a comfortable position. It is better to lie down and relax your muscles, but you can also rest while half-sitting;
3. get rid of unnecessary thoughts from your head - daily worries, problems, feelings of guilt, jealousy, etc.;
4. start remembering your good deeds, saying them out loud, thanking yourself for doing them;
5. continue in the same spirit, call whatever comes to mind first, even the most ridiculous at first glance.

You can thank yourself for helping others, taking big, generous steps. And you can be grateful to yourself even for the fact that in childhood you ate good porridge without causing trouble to your parents. Every little thing matters. The first 5-10 actions will be easy to remember, the next ten will be much more difficult. But then the thoughts themselves will begin to pour out, surprising their owner. If so much has been done, then life was not in vain. And with such thoughts, you can continue to bring benefit to the world.

Study other people's meanings

If you can’t find your own reason for existence, why not peek through the cracks at others? Not everyone around them thinks about the meaning, but their goals are immediately visible. Most often these are the following aspirations:

• family, children, home;
• love, shared long life with a beloved partner;
• material security for many years;
• popularity, high status in society, power;
• self-realization in a career or hobby, recognition;
• goodness, spiritual enrichment, service to an idea or people;
• continuous self-development;
• pleasure.

It would be nice to let these categories pass through yourself and feel them. No, you don’t need to adopt a child, hang up self-PR posters, or give up everything to drink wine all day long, tucking into noble cheeses. You can devote more time to your loved one or his search, sit with little nephews, arrange a small charity event. It would be enough. But such tests will help you learn about your perception of different aspects of life. The experiment will tell you where your heart lies.

Meanings can be intertwined. Often a person strives for two or more goals - family and love, work and self-realization, money and pleasure. Finding a balance between these parts is a difficult but important task.

Take a step back

If meaninglessness intertwines the days of the present and the future, this does not mean that it was in the past. People with lost interest in the current, future tense were once happy. Babies are not born with a blank expression on their face. This is an acquired “disease”.

If so, then it’s better to remember the years when everything seemed necessary and valuable. What happened then, what was the turning point? There are several options:

• psychological trauma;
• disappointment in people or one's own goals;
• awareness of the unattainability of dreams;
• loss of a person, an important thing, a motive;
• criticism, obstacles;
• laziness or fatigue.

Stumbling over such obstacles, a person begins to wonder whether it was worth starting the fight at all, and what it leads to. A second wind appears, luck, a lucky break, help - and he pulls out. But not everyone is lucky.

If there really was a turning point, it is better to try to overcome it and continue moving forward. A few snags along the way will make the loot even more desirable. Relatives, like-minded people or psychologists will help you cope with moral decline.

Stop looking for meaning

Maybe, well, this is the meaning? Why ask questions that obviously cannot be answered? Sometimes heavy thoughts are signs of developing depression. Once you get rid of it, you can live safely again.

Going to a beauty salon, ordering sushi, or walking with your beloved dog may not be the meaning of life, but they give a lot of joy. Perhaps the feeling of these small particles of happiness is the main goal of human existence. And the Universe will take care of more.

If it seems that life is meaningless, this is not a reason to give up or show indifference to yourself or others. Don't see the point now? Who can guarantee that he won’t appear in a year, a month or even a minute? You can continue to look for reasons to wake up in the morning. These searches will already become a distracting activity and will provide some kind of goal. Or you can just go with the flow, without racking your brains over philosophical questions, and enjoy every moment that unpredictable fate gives you.