which is there now and not there next.
From Emily Esfahani Smith (journalist/author of “The Power of Meaning”) in her Ted talk:
“I used to think the whole purpose of life was pursuing happiness. Everyone said the path to happiness was success, so I searched for that ideal job, that perfect boyfriend, that beautiful apartment. But instead of ever feeling fulfilled, I felt anxious and adrift. And I wasn’t alone; my friends — they struggled with this, too…
Eventually, I decided to go to graduate school for positive psychology to learn what truly makes people happy. But what I discovered there changed my life. The data showed that chasing happiness can make people unhappy. And what really struck me was this: the suicide rate has been rising around the world, and it recently reached a 30-year high in America. Even though life is getting objectively better by nearly every conceivable standard, more people feel hopeless, depressed and alone. There’s an emptiness gnawing away at people, and you don’t have to be clinically depressed to feel it. Sooner or later, I think we all wonder: Is this all there is? And according to the research, what predicts this despair is not a lack of happiness. It’s a lack of something else, a lack of having meaning in life…
But that raised some questions for me. Is there more to life than being happy? And what’s the difference between being happy and having meaning in life? Many psychologists define happiness as a state of comfort and ease, feeling good in the moment. Meaning, though, is deeper. The renowned psychologist Martin Seligman says meaning comes from belonging to and serving something beyond yourself and from developing the best within you. Our culture is obsessed with happiness, but I came to see that seeking meaning is the more fulfilling path. And the studies show that people who have meaning in life, they’re more resilient, they do better in school and at work, and they even live longer…
So this all made me wonder: How can we each live more meaningfully? To find out, I spent five years interviewing hundreds of people and reading through thousands of pages of psychology, neuroscience and philosophy. Bringing it all together, I found that there are what I call four pillars of a meaningful life. And we can each create lives of meaning by building some or all of these pillars in our lives…”
They are:
The first: “The first pillar is belonging. Belonging comes from being in relationships where you’re valued for who you are intrinsically and where you value others as well…”
The second: “For many people, belonging is the most essential source of meaning, those bonds to family and friends. For others, the key to meaning is the second pillar: purpose. Now, finding your purpose is not the same thing as finding that job that makes you happy. Purpose is less about what you want than about what you give…”
The third: “The third pillar of meaning is also about stepping beyond yourself, but in a completely different way: transcendence. Transcendent states are those rare moments when you’re lifted above the hustle and bustle of daily life, your sense of self fades away, and you feel connected to a higher reality. For one person I talked to, transcendence came from seeing art. For another person, it was at church. For me, I’m a writer, and it happens through writing…”
The fourth: “The fourth pillar is storytelling, the story you tell yourself about yourself. Creating a narrative from the events of your life brings clarity. It helps you understand how you became you. But we don’t always realize that we’re the authors of our stories and can change the way we’re telling them. Your life isn’t just a list of events. You can edit, interpret and retell your story, even as you’re constrained by the facts…”
Well, there it is.
Of the four, the last, storytelling would not resonate with most of us in this land. It’s similar to the view that holding an image of yourself standing on the victory stand gets you there, or helps. Here it is considered as completely self-delusional, not seen as of value.
Among the other three, sense of belonging and transcendence could provide helpful support for carrying on, the main is the ‘purpose’, the key.
At the station many of us are in life, constrained physically, mentally and financially, even little acts/words of kindness to relieve, even if momentarily, other man’s (sentient or otherwise) burden, is a good enough purpose to pursue. Would want us to long and live for another day in life! What do you think?
A recent article on the subject in TIME kind of confirms the need for a higher purpose. It says researchers have found the long-touted strategies for Happiness –
- expressing gratitude
- increasing social interactions
- practicing mindfulness or meditation
- spending more time in nature
- exercisie
‘- do not provide sustained results.!!!
Well, what does at all then?
Not surprising at all if it is understood happiness is a transitory state of mind while purpose is a soul-satisfying driving force.
The Ted talk is available here: Emily Esfahani Smith: There’s more to life than being happy | TED Talk and the article in Time at: Science Studies Don’t Actually Support Happiness Strategies | Time
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Sanmargam 