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Do You Ever Ask, Is Life Meaningless?
Here’s a secret: the answer is a paradox
When you ask yourself hard questions about life, do you ever arrive at depressing conclusions? Can life sometimes seem empty, pointless, and devoid of meaning?
When we ask ourselves hard questions, our minds can easily turn toward nihilism—the belief that there’s nothing underlying existence, like values, meaning, purpose, or knowledge. This may not be your regular experience, but I’m sure, at some point in your life, you felt a deep sense of despair that caused you to ask, what’s the point of all of this?
Maybe you felt this way when you broke up with a long-time partner, or when a family member died, or when you didn’t get that promotion or into that university you were aiming for.
At times like these, it can feel like we have nothing to hold onto and no power to make it better.
What do you do in these moments? How do you pull yourself out of this existential pit of misery when the questions you ask yourself seem to have no hopeful answers?
One way you can pull yourself out is by ceasing to fight your negative answers. There’s likely some truth to them and there’s no sense in denying what’s true. The question is, is it the whole truth?
