Finding Meaning In This Impending Doom
“A meaningful life can be extremely satisfying even in the midst of hardship, whereas a meaningless life is a terrible ordeal no matter how comfortable it is.” — Yuval Noah Harari
It can be said without a doubt that COVID19 has changed the way we are living. For some, it has turned out for the best — I have heard someone say that the pandemic has helped them reassess their life and reprioritize what’s best for them. For others, it has become a thing which they constantly loath — I have heard someone say that they are angry with God for allowing this to happen. It is no surprise to us when we hear people say that they feel depressed, anxious, or in a constant state of impending doom. This exhaustion with the mess that is the new normal. People are not only finding themselves lost in this world of new normal, they’re finding their lives lacking meaning. They’re finding their lives lacking prospects and purpose. We feel as though we don’t know our place in the world. We are unsure of where we are headed. There’s a meaninglessness to life that we strongly feel. Not only does it leave us in a state of feeling lost in life, it also pins us down to depression.
Many who have been diagnosed with depression say that the road ahead of them is blocked. They feel as though no matter how much they give to life, life acts selfishly and refuses to give back to them. People with depression are encapsulated by a directionless darkness that seems to only end in taking their own life.
In our day and time, impending doom seems to have taken over the lives of people throughout the world in a collective way. We don’t feel as though that impending doom is personal but rather a collective doom — one where the entire world is surrendered into believing that they have no control over the steering wheel of the vehicle that is their life.
According to multiple studies and research papers published recently, anxiety and depression disorders have been on the rise, especially amongst working class and lower middle class populations. This is mainly due to the fact that while people might have felt like they had a grip on their lives and some certainty on what the future might look like for them in the past, today people are constantly doubting their sanity, purpose, and passions.
During the past year, a lot of people have been forced into uncertainty. The uncertainty of job security, the uncertainty of future endeavors, and the uncertainty of what tomorrow might look like. Such uncertainty has caused people to live meaningless lives, and thus purposeless existence. This purposeless existence causes a spiral in people’s mental health.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, such a topic has been highlighted and it’s become increasingly more interesting to people who aim to lead a life that is not so ordinary. Here I discuss two of those ideas from two different continents: Logotherapy — which is a psychological practice developed by Dr. Viktor Frankl—and Ikigai — an idea that has existed in Japanese culture for centuries.
Logotherapy
Dr. Viktor Frankl, famous neurologist, psychiatrist, and Holocaust survivor, addresses such feelings of loss and meaningless living through his psychological practice of Logotherapy, which he writes so profoundly about in his part-study part-memoir book, Man’s Search For Meaning. Dr. Frankl derives the name Logotherapy from the greek word Logos, which translates to “meaning.” Through Logotherapy, a person’s psychological well-being is assessed through tests and questionnaires that look into their level of perceived meaningfulness of life. A Value Awareness Technique is also used in order to tell which values exactly can make this person’s life more meaningful, should they decide to practice those values.
It is Dr. Viktor Frankl’s belief that humans live for the future, that is to say that they live for an attainable goal. He calls this provisional existence, and a person who cannot see their provisional existence, as in does not see their goals as attainable, does not live for the future, and thus lives in a depressive state of mind. In contrast, he believes that a person who has attainable goals for himself and lives for a purpose can build a strong character, just as Viktor Frankl himself did during his imprisonment in concentration camps during World War II.
Dr. Viktor Frankl also challenges us to find the answers and reasons for purposeful existence. He tells us that in order to find the answers and reasons for purposeful existence, we must go through turbulent times and difficulties. He teaches us that rather than being avert to challenges and turbulence, we must embrace it and be courageous enough to suffer. Dr. Frankl puts in front of us the connection and correlation between suffering and purposeful existence when he says “He who knows the why for his existence, will be able to bear almost any how.”
Ikigai
We all have that stereotypical mindset that the Japanese have an answer for everything. Well, that’s because they kind of do. It’s not because of strict work rules or ethics or discipline, or because they are more intelligent or better developed. It is rather because from a young age, the Japanese are taught to live by an ethos known as Ikigai.
Ikigai is a Japanese philosophy that is the life and breath of the Japanese people who practice it. Ikigai’s literal meaning is often debated and if you research it, you will find that every resource will provide you with a slightly different definition. For me, however, the definition of Ikigai is something I read on a very resourceful website known as Wikipedia, which defines it as “a reason for being,” which is close to saying having a purpose in life.
Having a reason for being is what the Japanese possess and learn to have at a young age, which in turn brings them to a position of knowing what they want to do, striving and working towards it, from an early point in their lives. This in turn translates into having a society of people who are not only passionate, but also have an impact and purpose in what they do and what they possess skills in. The Japanese learn Ikigai from such a young age that to them having a reason for being is general knowledge — like everyone should know what they want to do in life.
There are four main pillars to Ikigai, which, put together in a venn diagram (as shown in a figure 1), give us four sub-pillars, which eventually gives us Ikigai.
The four main pillars are:
1. What you love
2. What you are good at
3. What you can paid for
4. What the world needs
The four sub-pillars are shown to us by diverging these main pillars. What you love and what you are good at give you a 1. passion to drive you forward. What you love and what the world needs provide you with a 2. mission to make the world a better place. What you are good at with what you can be paid for provide you with 3. a profession that you can practice. What you can be paid for with what the world needs provide with 4. a vocation that you can work for.
One might think that they need some of these more than the other, and while having some of these and ignoring others might be satisfactory, it will lead to a lack of purpose to the work that you are striving for, and having purpose to work for is one of the main things that people aim to do in life.
Finding your Ikigai might not be an easy trip through life. After all, as short as life might seem, our experiences during that short period of life encompass different places, slow and fast-paced changes, people (with their different attitudes, personalities, wisdoms, and their own experiences), pain, suffering, joy, and excitement. We should embrace these experiences, not as challenges, but as lessons.
People’s lives turned 180 degrees when, in 2020, the coronavirus struck and plagued the world. The general vibes around the world were those of declining mental health, elevating anxiety, depression going further downward, and people facing the highest levels of uncertainties for the first time in their lives. These vibes still persist today. Ideas on finding meaning and leading a purposeful life, such as the ones I’ve mentioned above, are not a scarcity and can be found, but know that not every idea will appeal to you or the person you recommend them to. Every idea is received through a person’s experiences in life. What you need to find is the ideas that suit you best.
