Monday, February 15, 2016

Meaningful Life Part 1


As a creative person, I struggle with wanting my life and art to have meaning. It's important to me. 
So I began to look into how I can have more peace in this area. This is what I learned so far.

Since we are all different - our experiences, bringing up, culture, and personalities, we will all find different things to be meaningful. My family and I can be sitting eating dinner together, but each one of us is going to experience or interpret that moment as meaningful or not. And that's ok. The act of eating dinner and being together is meaningful to me, but eating and having a good conversation is meaningful to my son. No conversation, not meaningful for him. 

So doing something meaningful really is doing something you find important. Something that has value to you.
mean·ing
important or worthwhile quality; purpose.
"this can lead to new meaning in the life of older people"

                 synonyms:valuevalidityworthconsequenceaccount,
 useusefulness,significancepoint
"my life has no meaning"
                       synonyms:principles, ethics, moral code, morals, standards, code of behavior
"society's values are passed on to us as children"


Eric Maisel explained it best, "There are many ways to garner the psychological experience of meaning. You might have that experience just by gazing up at the night sky. BUT we make ourselves proudest when we strive for meaning that is rooted in our values and principles." 
Pretty much, it's better when we experience meaning on purpose and not by accident.

So if I can create meaning on purpose and not just wonder or feel it by accident sometimes, I felt I had to start at the beginning of myself...find out what exactly is important to me. What's valuable? What is most precious to me. 
val·ue
a person's principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of what is important in life.
"they internalize their parents' rules and values"


So began the list of values... NEXT POST :)

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