{"id":854,"date":"2021-07-20T12:22:42","date_gmt":"2021-07-20T19:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/?p=854"},"modified":"2021-07-20T12:22:42","modified_gmt":"2021-07-20T19:22:42","slug":"finding-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/20\/finding-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Meaning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Here’s a way to think about what constitutes a meaningful life:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Coherence<\/strong> – to feel meaning you should have a cognitive understanding of the world. Without a sense of coherence, the world is chaotic and it’s difficult to see patterns and trends.<\/li>
  2. Significance<\/strong> – this is the spiritual aspect of meaning. It’s the feeling that life is inherently valuable and worthwhile. This can be a particularly tough topic because it’s where all the big existential questions come into play. <\/li>
  3. Purpose<\/strong> – this is the realm personal growth. It’s where you feel you can self-transcend and also where you can provide value to others. If you understand the world (coherence) and feel life is valuable (significance), what will you now do with your time?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Breaking down “meaning” into those smaller categories helps me feel that a lofty goal like finding meaning in life is much more approachable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I discovered this framework in John Vervaeke’s 51 (!) part lecture series<\/a> on Awakening from the Meaning Crisis. In many ways, it surpasses the Jay Garfield<\/a> series that I recommended way back in 2016 by quite a bit. Definitely check it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    By way of credit, I’m not sure who originally came up with the framework, it’s not Vervaeke, but here’s a paper<\/a> from the Journal of Positive Psychology that goes over the state of the research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Here’s a way to think about what constitutes a meaningful life: Coherence – to feel meaning you should have a cognitive understanding of the world. Without a sense of coherence, the world is chaotic and it’s difficult to see patterns and trends. Significance – this is the spiritual aspect of meaning. It’s the feeling that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[103,60],"class_list":["post-854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-etc","tag-meaning","tag-philosophy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/ppj2P-dM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":855,"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions\/855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcusvorwaller.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}