Meaningful Life

[okidoke]

What, if anything, are you doing to make your life, even in a small way, more meaningful? And if you’re not doing anything, is there a reason you’re choosing not to?

Asking questions like this actually helps me in my own life, and if it’s helping me, then it might help someone else - and I’m all for that.

 

[user 148069]

hmm, there was a time I did volunteer work but after some thinking I did it because well, it's often a suggestion given when you're feeling depressed- so that you get out of your own head and do something. When I looked back I wondered if I really wanted to actually help others or was just doing it for selfish reasons. Personally, a lot of things I have tried did not help to alleviate depression, I mean it does but it is only temporary then it's back to square one. Because of that I struggle to find meaning. Not sure how can I find meaning when I'm struggling to get out of bed and get chores done on some days you know?

 

[TropicalStarfish]

Dunno, perhaps I'll take a break from this site, a bit, and try to spend my time a bit better today.

 

[okidoke]

hmm, there was a time I did volunteer work but after some thinking I did it because well, it's often a suggestion given when you're feeling depressed- so that you get out of your own head and do something. When I looked back I wondered if I really wanted to actually help others or was just doing it for selfish reasons. Personally, a lot of things I have tried did not help to alleviate depression, I mean it does but it is only temporary then it's back to square one. Because of that I struggle to find meaning. Not sure how can I find meaning when I'm struggling to get out of bed and get chores done on some days you know?

Oh yeah I know about the trap of the bed. For me, I was too sedentary for a long time after I stopped working and one day I just said to myself, “I’m sick of this.” and I just started working on myself. I started with exercising and eventually my thoughts seemed to improve. I’m considering volunteering at the local Buddhist temple, in their garden, just to be outdoors and to interact with people. Not for any real noble cause, but it’s nearby, it’s pleasantly quiet and people who are there or visit are pleasant and quiet. I don’t think we feel like helping others when we’re in a depressed state, but as an option for interacting with people who would very much appreciate your input, that can be beneficial to our mental health I think.

 

[okidoke]

Dunno, perhaps I'll take a break from this site, a bit, and try to spend my time a bit better today.

lol, yeah, even as a new member here, I have to tell myself to not over indulge and just set aside some time for the site and then other stuff.

 

[user 148069]

I started with exercising and eventually my thoughts seemed to improve

That's something I have started on early this year. I spend at least 30 minutes walking around the lake near where I live. Manage to make it a habit of going everyday. I do feel better after the walks but the next day I start to feel bad again. Just gets frustrating since I am hoping that the effects will be more permanent. But i guess I have to manage my own expectations.

 

[okidoke]

@orangecat I’ve always been one to have high expectations until only recently. I just had to stop. Don’t stop walking. Maybe expand your walks or explore new routes. Maybe look at riding a bike, doing some yoga. I like to vary my exercise. I think exercise takes time to affect the mind.

 

[okidoke]

I think I want to bring this up again, because of recent posts I've read.

 

[user 139760]

I occasionally take long walks around the city, either by myself or with my girls. I try to get at least 30 minutes of exercise every day, just to staybin decent enough shape, not to bodybuild like I used to do younger.

I also try to read on occasion, play a videogame to pass the time. Occasional meditation as well, just some calm, noiseless time to try and center myself, keep in a good state of mind. I set myself some goals, small goals, in the immediate future, else I kind of overthink everything.

Basically I try to enjoy life as best as I can, a day at a time and allow myself to be surprised by it. Like a chance meeting with an old friend at a grocery store, like what happened last Friday lol

 

[NoxApex(N/A)]

Gonna be kinda weird but, Death, actually.
I find it to be a rather great motivator for my life as well as a meditative focal point.
Because that's kind of the punchline, right? It's our natural, organic antithesis.
Everything that we do or don't do, say or don't say in life, amounts to that.
Therefore, while most people find it fearful, negative, and destructive, and chaotic...
I find it, oddly beautiful, perhaps because it's quite painful and I'm rather haunted by it and have been haunted by it my entire life.
Therefore, I love the thing that I hate, I hate the thing that I love, that which defeats me on some days, motivates me on other days.
But I mean, the meaning of life is subjective, right? It's naturally going to be different to each and every individual.
Mine is just perhaps odd to others.

 

[okidoke]

Gonna be kinda weird but, Death, actually.
I find it to be a rather great motivator for my life as well as a meditative focal point.
Because that's kind of the punchline, right? It's our natural, organic antithesis.
Everything that we do or don't do, say or don't say in life, amounts to that.
Therefore, while most people find it fearful, negative, and destructive, and chaotic...
I find it, oddly beautiful, perhaps because it's quite painful and I'm rather haunted by it and have been haunted by it my entire life.
Therefore, I love the thing that I hate, I hate the thing that I love, that which defeats me on some days, motivates me on other days.
But I mean, the meaning of life is subjective, right? It's naturally going to be different to each and every individual.
Mine is just perhaps odd to others.

Well, I'm not sure I understand how your motivation by death is actually making your life meaningful. Can you elaborate on that? Sure the meaning of life is subjective, but in my opinion, it's to make your life meaningful, whatever that means to you is very personal.

 

[NoxApex(N/A)]

Well, I'm not sure I understand how your motivation by death is actually making your life meaningful. Can you elaborate on that? Sure the meaning of life is subjective, but in my opinion, it's to make your life meaningful, whatever that means to you is very personal.

I do a lot of learning from reverse-engineering. So when I found myself in a series of tangles in life, the way I began to find direction again was to reverse-engineer a path for myself from inevitability back to where I was, quite similarly actually trying to untangle a bunch of wires or cables.

 

[okidoke]

I do a lot of learning from reverse-engineering. So when I found myself in a series of tangles in life, the way I began to find direction again was to reverse-engineer a path for myself from inevitability back to where I was, quite similarly actually trying to untangle a bunch of wires or cables.

Oooookaaaay……..as long as it works for you that’s great………I’m still confused lol

 

[user 139760]

Oooookaaaay……..as long as it works for you that’s great………I’m still confused lol

I think he means that death is a powerful motivator. He uses the inevitability of death as a source of motivation to try and do the things he might regret not doing latee, because once you're dead, you won't get the chance.
Something like that, am I getting it right?

 

[okidoke]

I think he means that death is a powerful motivator. He uses the inevitability of death as a source of motivation to try and do the things he might regret not doing latee, because once you're dead, you won't get the chance.
Something like that, am I getting it right?

So just “the fear of death motivates me to live my best life” would’ve sufficed in that case, but, I want to know what it is that he’s doing to make it meaningful. Sorry, I didn’t think it was going to be such a perplexing question.

 

[NoxApex(N/A)]

Oooookaaaay……..as long as it works for you that’s great………I’m still confused lol

Guys like me either had drunken or absentee fathers for whatever reason. So we initially learned the lessons that fatherly guidance didn't give us simply from just being thrown to the wolves enough times in life. Gradually, the more life kicks your ass, the more used to it you get, and the more used to it you get, the more resilient to it you become, until eventually you have both enough resilience and enough experience of having been through the circus that you eventually have the wiggle room to figure things out on your own based on a series of testing, retesting for replicability and taking a law of averages, as well as going through the arduous requirement of the process of elimination based on differential factors per circumstances.

I think he means that death is a powerful motivator. He uses the inevitability of death as a source of motivation to try and do the things he might regret not doing latee, because once you're dead, you won't get the chance.
Something like that, am I getting it right?

Correct. There is no grandiose to life to me. The whole thing is a fight to survive that I've just become comfortable under the pressures thereof. What I do matters to me, and likely only me, and I've become comfortable with that, so much so that I really don't even think about it unless threads like this pop up. I'm already blessed with the ability to be easily and cheaply entertained, I don't think happiness is something that's forever sustainable, I think it's normal to have ups and downs, that's just life to me. But yes, the motivator for me is the actual doing and being active part, because that's what I want for myself before my time comes. I'm content to fight it until I literally am no longer able to. My grandfather did it because he was a family man, I'm not, I'm doing it just to be doing it.

In a way, the goal is not as important to me as the path to getting to it. Because most things in life tend to be quite temporary.

 

[4No1]

Not sure. Nothing, I think I'm too busy with just surviving. Too much problems to be solved, I hardly have time to do anything unnecessary, if I did something meaningful, I woudln't manage.
It depends though on what is meaningful. I think it's when I am useful to other people. Something like volunteering or doing some research work, or some work, that is useful for other people. I don't do it, because I have no time for volunteering right now(I used to, but that were the sport events mostly, so it was only a little bit useful), and I can't find any useful job, so I have an ordinary one. I try to help my friends sometimes, but it doesn't happen often as there is not a lot of things I can help with.
I'd like to do something more meaningful, but I really don't know what.

 

[Abstamyous]

I look for the reason behind what I am doing. For the most part, I've developed a curiousity for how the world works and for why people think the way they do. I am at my best when I feel productive, and I have found deeper meaning in my job as my work has helped build a better business (I still have great frustrations, but that's a different topic). I'm a boring mom who has managed to raise 3 individuals who are quite interesting to me.
And when I take into account that I've done everything I am willing to do that could have completely destroyed my life, and then failed at destroying my life... Yeah, it's time to have some gratitude and understanding that I exist. I've lost the desire to waste my time and life by choosing to do nothing.

 

[user 188685]

What, if anything, are you doing to make your life, even in a small way, more meaningful? And if you’re not doing anything, is there a reason you’re choosing not to?

Asking questions like this actually helps me in my own life, and if it’s helping me, then it might help someone else - and I’m all for that.

I honestly don't know what a meaningful life is,I mean yes I do know what it is,but I don't know how to live a meaningful life,now if I had a reason to live a life that was a great and wonderful life,then yes I would have a great life then.

 

[Cherubino]

I've posted this many times because the way he puts it is so simple and clear and also deep to me ... meaning can be found through love for something or someone ... I'm looking for someone to love