Meaning

In a life full of energy and resilience, one often experiences a meaningful feeling and the opposite is also true, in a life where little meaning is experienced, the risk of physical and/or mental complaints increases. But what about this, is the concept of "meaning" the chicken or the egg when it comes to "shine", "resilience" or "meaning" in life?

Meaning is a word that can be divided into “sense” and “giving”. What meaning do you give to yourself and to your life? Do you do a lot of things that give you energy and things that you enjoy?

A hypothesis;“In many cases, if we suffer from fatigue complaints, we should not do less, but rather do more of the things we enjoy.”

Giving meaning to your life seems like an easy task and yet there are many people who have difficulty with this. Why am I even doing this? What's the point? What is the meaning of life? Why am I even here? If you are looking for meaning, these are questions you often ask yourself.

Do you ever do things with dedication, and does that feel good? Do you regularly do things that you consider very meaningful? You might just experience a feeling of recognition, connection and freedom. It is important that you think about yourself, pay attention and take time to think about the things you like and, above all, do things that make you happy.

“The meaning of existence lies in caring for other people's happiness. And that sentence is also the foundation on which we stand. We were thrown onto this planet by a series of coincidences. All we can do is make something meaningful out of it.”
Dirk de Wachter

As Dirk de Wachter indicates, meaning appears to be largely about the values and contributions to the life of “the other”, or “the big picture”. For example, during good conversations with friends, family or colleagues, we discover which and how we process experiences, who we want to be and what is important to us. So it is always about you as a person, and the place you perceive yourself to occupy in the bigger picture.

The sense of purpose for one person can be “working in healthcare” and for another “working as a pastor or minister”, these are fairly large parts of someone's life. Meaning can also be found in the little things, such as consciously enjoying birds in your garden, playing a match with dedication, doing volunteer work or having a good conversation with someone you love.

Examples of meaning are:

Maintain good relationships
Enjoy life
Develop yourself in work or study, for example
Contributing to a better world
Honoring a higher power or force

What things do you enjoy and find important to do? Where can you find the best connection with yourself? The stronger you feel this connection, the more you can speak of a sense of meaning. This is accompanied by RESILIENCE in body and mind!

charity

Practical tips and links:

Meaning in life is related to the values you have and the extent to which you live up to them. Values are the deepest desires regarding self-care, relating to others, how you want to act, etc. You could call it your “inner compass”.
- Try to write down 3 values for yourself and respect them more than you have lately. A number of points that a value can meet:
  - Values are here and now, goals are the future.
  - It is best to hold values loosely.
  - Values can be about yourself and others.
  - Values are taken in freedom.
  - Values do not need to be justified.
- Which values are the most important to you?