This week I want to introduce you to the following habit: the habit of quick meaning repair.
Every day we’re bombarded by small (and sometimes large) threats to our experience of life as meaningful. Maybe you submit your slides to a gallery and get a particularly painful rejection. Suddenly painting (and life itself) may seem that much less meaningful. Or maybe you’ve invested meaning in your home graphics business. Just as you’re about to launch your business you notice that someone has beaten you to the punch. You’re likely to experience that bit of bad luck as a blow to your sense of the meaningfulness of life.
The habit to acquire is the following one. First, you recognize that something important has happened. You admit that a blow has occurred. Second, you feel the feeling: emotional health isn’t helped by denial. Third, you remind yourself that meaning, because it is a psychological experience, is a wellspring and a renewable resource. You can make new meaning as soon as the pain subsides. Fourth, you actually make that new meaning by taking appropriate action: by sending out your slides again or by actively marketing your graphics business.
Our sense of the meaningfulness of life is regularly threatened. When a meaning crisis occurs we become emotionally unwell, usually calling the experience “depression.” Rarely do we recognize that a meaning event has just happened and that, in order to feel better, we must take action by making new meaning. It is tremendously useful to acquire the following four-step habit: understand what’s happened; feel the feeling; pledge to make new meaning; and make some new meaning! This is a great habit to acquire …
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Learn a lot more about meaning and life purpose in my next life purpose boot camp class that starts in July. Learn more here:
https://ericmaisel.com/life-purpose-boot-camp-class/
If you like, you can then become a life purpose boot camp instructor and create a new revenue stream for yourself. See how here:
https://ericmaisel.com/life-purpose-boot-camp-training/
I am late replying to this post but I am glad I found this blog. Your theories on existentialism and meaning are really helping me get past a slump of horrible rejection and I thank you. I loved your books. I read them all within a day or two and found many helpful insights!