keltoi Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 stop looking for meaning and start looking for a porpoise. lol. best post of thread. so insightful. seriously it's my standard reply to "life has no meaning". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshuatxuk Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 Forge meaning and meaning becomes. It's not just for the Evangelicals. They just have the advantage of walking into a very well structured system. I hadn't quite thought of it that way, good point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Rambo Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 when you are being buggered does it require meaning? I think not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luke viia Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 I lived quite a lot of my 20's like this. There was only one thing that truly "snapped me out of it" and that was almost dying. This has recently snapped me out of it as well. This past spring, I was having a strange and alarming week full of arrhythmias and didn't know what to do (I have a history of heart complications... TOF / recently increasing leak in my tricuspid valve, etc). My cardiologist was across many state lines, I have no health insurance and really didn't want to go to an emergency room. Laying in bed and thinking "these might be my last thoughts" was a bit scary. Hope I don't come off like too much of a baby, but it was an intense emotional state and while I wasn't exactly "sad," tears started streaming down my face as I held my hand over my irregular heart and realized everything I knew and cared for might soon be completely gone. I want very much to feel more prepared for my next bout with mortality - though it's clear that no one is ever fully prepared, it'd be nice to have lived in a meaningful way (subjective, i know) until it happens again. And it will. Point being: remember you won't always be here, and you may find it easier to enjoy things that seem arbitrary, difficult, or meaningless at the moment. Also, think about dinosaurs, that's what I do. :sup: They stomped around like champions for hundreds of millions of years before nature gave them a random smack-down. They didn't know it was coming, and they wouldn't have cared anyway. Meaning, as has been said, needs to be forged to exist. Life carries on with or without it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltoi Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 APATHY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest viscosity Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 get more hobbies and try not to think about it too much, its unfathomable to any of our best thinking so use the time to make the best of it. life in itself is relatively rare so don't take it for granted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murve33 Posted October 4, 2011 Author Share Posted October 4, 2011 A lot of good advice in here. Since posting the thread I've thought more about what I can do to make my life better or give my life more meaning; instead of focusing on life itself and where I am headed in the longterm. I've come up with three things that I really think that will help me. 1. Find new hobbies, start new projects, or just enjoy things more: My goto hobbies (Making music, qbasic games, drawing; pretty much making art) are very flawed, I think. They're only good when I'm achieving something (or a finished product). I've been drained for ideas and it's becoming more about getting something done instead of having fun doing it. This especially ties into making music. I almost have this guilt from not being able to write a complete song, because I feel like I should have the ability to (I have perfect pitch, I can play instruments well and have taken lessons, I have a very nice keyboard, and my father wrote/writes music). But as of this morning, I don't really give a shit anymore. I have come to the conclusion that I am NOT an artist, in the sense that I make complete pieces or anything like that. I should find happiness in the fact that I can make tremendously beautiful 6 second musical phrases (despite not being a full song), or that I have developed an art style (even if I can't draw a beautiful scene), or that I can make bullshit qbasic bits (even if my programming skills aren't evolving to other languages/more complex programs). I just need to enjoy what I do and not focus on getting something done. 2. Change my smoking habits: I've been smoking weed almost every day lately. I hadn't done this before because I always bought my own, and since it's expensive I'd only do it once a week with a friend or two. Now I get it from people, and do it as an escape. When I started smoking, I told myself I'd never do this. I'd only smoke when I was happy, so I could heighten that positive experience. For me, smoking weed while depressed/stressed is detrimental, because I think deeply when I'm stoned, and having that depressed bias spirals my thoughts into a shitty shitty rut. I need to make it more about the experiences, and enjoy it. 3. Stay Positive: This negative cynicism isn't doing me any good. I need to stop focusing on the bad things and enjoy the good. I feel like I had been waiting for some sort of change to happen for me, now I realize that only I can change my lifestyle. Sounds like a cheesey line out of a self-help book, but I guess it's true. In regards to my long-term life, I think I can take steps to keep it good/interesting/full of experiences (move a lot, take different jobs, blah blah). Not sure how easy that will be, but it sounds better than settling to me. Thanks for the kind words and advice and such. Please continue the discussion/thread. There are some good posts in here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fiznuthian Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 I wrote about a page of stuff, and then deleted it all. Have any of you struggled with the feeling that life is meaningless? How do you find meaning? Or how do you find happiness? As of now, I am not enjoying any hobbies (uninspired as far as making films/music/qbasic games goes). My recreation lately has been smoking pot with my room mates and playing minecraft, but I'm not really getting anything out of that. It's more of an escape than anything else. The only thing I feel truly happy doing is hanging out with my girlfriend or listening to music while I drive. And I think I've been in that boat for the past 2 years. Only difference was I listened to music all of the time and saw my girlfriend everyday. Maybe I'm just depressed/chemically imbalanced, or maybe something in my life needs to change. 1st World Problems, I guess. I find that sometimes to feel more in place rather than out of place I just have to do things that make me feel more human, and not so much a bystander watching everything else go by. For me, that's getting on my bike and riding wherever and whenever. It's adventurous. I meet people en route, talk to them, learn about them. I find places near me that I have never seen before. Taking my pup for a run is another new one for me, it's a lot of fun. For a while now, cooking myself delicious meals with good nutritious food I find very rewarding too. Especially after a lot of hard exercise, and when i'm so hungry I can't stand it. Are you a very social person? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Iain C Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 Of course life is meaningless. You must create your own meaning. If you can't do that, I suppose you could die. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fiznuthian Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 I know the meaning of life. It is to have a happy life. What does it mean to be happy? To be complete. Meaning... To do what it takes to feel complete. Usually meaning if Friend A has an Xbox I must get an Xbox to feel Happy or if I don't have a GF i must get one to be happy. It can very from person to person what it takes to make them feel complete. Like for Richard D. James, it was to make a shit ton of music. Shit like that. Always obtaining what we don't have to make us feel complete to make us happy to put meaning to our life. Yes? if i might just step out of my existentialist being for one second (did you know camus rejected that label?) I'm not quite sure how you compare creating original pieces of music to a material good which has hundreds of millions of identical copies. But if it's a zen paradox you wish - what if in striving to rid yourself of the desire to gain something, you realize that the pursuit of that goal is yet another thing which you are merely striving to obtain? I know I've recommended this story to someone else on here, but have a gander - it's a quick read: Kamo no Chomei "Hojoki" ah, that was me chen! still one of the my favorite stories ever read! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fiznuthian Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 Of course life is meaningless. You must create your own meaning. If you can't do that, I suppose you could die. This is pretty much it.. It's not what you SHOULD do, but rather what you WANT to do with your life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murve33 Posted October 4, 2011 Author Share Posted October 4, 2011 I wrote about a page of stuff, and then deleted it all. Have any of you struggled with the feeling that life is meaningless? How do you find meaning? Or how do you find happiness? As of now, I am not enjoying any hobbies (uninspired as far as making films/music/qbasic games goes). My recreation lately has been smoking pot with my room mates and playing minecraft, but I'm not really getting anything out of that. It's more of an escape than anything else. The only thing I feel truly happy doing is hanging out with my girlfriend or listening to music while I drive. And I think I've been in that boat for the past 2 years. Only difference was I listened to music all of the time and saw my girlfriend everyday. Maybe I'm just depressed/chemically imbalanced, or maybe something in my life needs to change. 1st World Problems, I guess. I find that sometimes to feel more in place rather than out of place I just have to do things that make me feel more human, and not so much a bystander watching everything else go by. For me, that's getting on my bike and riding wherever and whenever. It's adventurous. I meet people en route, talk to them, learn about them. I find places near me that I have never seen before. Taking my pup for a run is another new one for me, it's a lot of fun. For a while now, cooking myself delicious meals with good nutritious food I find very rewarding too. Especially after a lot of hard exercise, and when i'm so hungry I can't stand it. Are you a very social person? No, I'm not. And I've noticed that's an issue. My high school friends kind just fell into my life. I met one guy who introduced me to everyone else and after a while I had a fantastic friend base. I'm in my junior year of college and haven't made any new friends really, although I finally moved in with some people and they're pretty cool. I always focused on the issue of not being social as a problem. But honestly, I think I need to figure out how to achieve happiness and contentment without help from anyone else. Having people to hang out with does make life fun though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dese manz hatin Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 Having people to hang out with does make life fun though. It may sound cliché and is probably highly subjective anyway, but a good mixture of friends, music, women, books and booze is pretty much what manages to make me happy at the moment. And I'm pretty much never happy, so that says something. When some of it is missing, I just do lots of drugs at parties. I hope it stays this way for a while :sup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest theSun Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 depends what you like being an intense introvert i would love to just go live in the middle of the woods in alaska forever with my similarly introverted lady friend. i have sort of a hard time finding meaning in my life spending so much time at work, doing things i don't really care about. at the same time it gives me mental exercise and forces me to be a little more social, so it's not all in vain. life's what you make of it. stop thinking about trying to be happy and just go do things. i've been feeling pretty good since i started exercising more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Npoess Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 To me life just seems become more meaningless the older I get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murve33 Posted October 4, 2011 Author Share Posted October 4, 2011 depends what you like being an intense introvert i would love to just go live in the middle of the woods in alaska forever with my similarly introverted lady friend. i have sort of a hard time finding meaning in my life spending so much time at work, doing things i don't really care about. at the same time it gives me mental exercise and forces me to be a little more social, so it's not all in vain. Oh yea, disregarded the fact that there are introverts and extroverts. How silly of me. I really enjoy the company of people, BUT, only if they are similar to me in several ways, or like-minded I guess (which I'm learning is apparently uncommon). I had a large group of friends in highschool, and somehow, we were all pretty like-minded. We still are, but we're pretty separated these days. So, as of now, I'd be perfectly happy only socializing with my girlfriend for the rest of my life. But since she's not always around (conflicting schedules, assloads of homework, lives in a different city) I'd like to have a couple of friends to be with while I'm away from her. Edit: Honestly, watmm/#watmm/chatmm have kept me sane during my long boring school days sophmore and junior year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marf Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 I lived quite a lot of my 20's like this. There was only one thing that truly "snapped me out of it" and that was almost dying. This has recently snapped me out of it as well. This past spring, I was having a strange and alarming week full of arrhythmias and didn't know what to do (I have a history of heart complications... TOF / recently increasing leak in my tricuspid valve, etc). My cardiologist was across many state lines, I have no health insurance and really didn't want to go to an emergency room. Laying in bed and thinking "these might be my last thoughts" was a bit scary. Hope I don't come off like too much of a baby, but it was an intense emotional state and while I wasn't exactly "sad," tears started streaming down my face as I held my hand over my irregular heart and realized everything I knew and cared for might soon be completely gone. I want very much to feel more prepared for my next bout with mortality - though it's clear that no one is ever fully prepared, it'd be nice to have lived in a meaningful way (subjective, i know) until it happens again. And it will. Point being: remember you won't always be here, and you may find it easier to enjoy things that seem arbitrary, difficult, or meaningless at the moment. Also, think about dinosaurs, that's what I do. :sup: They stomped around like champions for hundreds of millions of years before nature gave them a random smack-down. They didn't know it was coming, and they wouldn't have cared anyway. Meaning, as has been said, needs to be forged to exist. Life carries on with or without it. youd think dick cheney would be more human going through this kind of shit. but nooooo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marf Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 knowing youll be a rotting corpse in less than 50 years tops should make it easier to ask girls out but it just fucking doesn't Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshuatxuk Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 I don't know if this has been recommended, but pets are a plus if you can have one without much issue. Even if it's just an asshole cat (which can essentially become crappy roommate who doesn't pay rent and is always hungry), it's still nice to have a creature around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
essines Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 I could just as easily kill myself. what if you cannot find something in which there is meaning? I lived quite a lot of my 20's like this. There was only one thing that truly "snapped me out of it" and that was almost dying. I had a toxic lithium level and was in renal failure. It was very strange because I just wanted to be left alone so death feels like really wanting to go to bed. After emergency hemodialysis and jumpstarting my kidneys, everything got intense. That was Feb. 2010. Since then, I've been continuously employed and in school fighting like a motherfucker for anything. The advantage to this is that it initiates a snowball effect. Between low-paying jobs, bills and school can be a lot of darkness. Every time that happens, I can point to nearly 2 years of continuous achievment and tell myself to get up and out. That's why chen is right and so was Camus, Kierkegaard and many others. Forge meaning and meaning becomes. It's not just for the Evangelicals. They just have the advantage of walking into a very well structured system. OP: for being such a fan of Minecraft...get your existential axe out and get to fucking work yeah i'm just in a rut between jobs. trying to go from crazy fuck around early twenties to slightly more responsible, careerish orientend mid to late twenties. working on getting a jorb but until i do its really tough to get motivated to do anything damn it! and i won't kill myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Braintree Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 I wish I had a porpoise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kwikshot Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 Life isn't meaningless, it just doesn't have a built-in meaning. Read: Existential nihlism Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
essines Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 The near death thing is what made me decide to move on with my life. I almost died a couple months back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Rambo Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 Life isn't meaningless, it just doesn't have a built-in meaning. Read: Existential nihlism But whether it has built in meaning is the interesting question, that's the point, and that's why it's the thing people are focussing on. Yeah sure, we can all provide endless meaning in our minds, everyone knows that already because everyone does it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kwikshot Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 Life isn't meaningless, it just doesn't have a built-in meaning. Read: Existential nihlism But whether it has built in meaning is the interesting question, that's the point, and that's why it's the thing people are focussing on. Yeah sure, we can all provide endless meaning in our minds, everyone knows that already because everyone does it. We make our own meaning out of life Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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