Research Reveals 3 Ingredients That Make Life Meaningful

Photo credit

“What is meant by meaningful life? A meaningful life is commonly associated with or predicted by the following:

• Positive self-views (e.g., high self-esteem and self-confidence).
• Seeing oneself as distinct (i.e. different from others in a positive way).
• Sense of self-continuity, meaning a connection between the past and present.
• Satisfaction of basic psychological needs—the need for autonomy, relatedness, and competence.

The sense of meaning in life refers to subjective perceptions of one’s life as a whole being meaningful. Note, that this is different from the meaningfulness of particular activities within life. For instance, despite engaging in activities you consider meaningful (e.g., volunteering, teaching), you may feel your life as a whole is not meaningful. In addition, people may perceive certain aspects of their worldview or self-view (e.g., occupation, talents, abilities, intimate relationships) as more meaningful than others.

Vignoles and Costin hypothesize that mental representations “foster a sense of [meaning in life] to the extent that they provide feelings of coherence, purpose, and existential mattering.”

Here are a few questions to ask yourself on a regular basis, in order to get a sense of how meaningful your life is to you at the moment and whether it is becoming more or less meaningful over time.

Coherence: Does your life make sense? Is there clarity? Are things as they “should” be? Do the different aspects of your life fit together nicely? Or is your life confused and fragmented

Mattering: Do you matter? Is your existence valuable? Have your actions and life as a whole made an important difference in the world? Or do you believe the world would not have really noticed or cared if you had not existed at all?

Purpose: Do you have a clear view of the direction your life is headed? Do you have important goals in life and are you committed to them? Or are you wandering aimlessly, with no appealing or worthy goal in life?“

Read the complete article at Psychology Today

#Well-being #Life #Meaning

💬 Is there something in your life that makes it personally meaningful?