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tigrennatenn  ·  3180 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Hubski, how do you find meaning in your life?

I have had this problem too. I'm an atheist, and generally believe that there is no particular higher purpose to my life, except what I choose as meaningful. And there's a lot of freedom in that, but it can also be scary.

The best way I've found to make it less scary is to think about it this way: Take things one day at a time. I might have a general feeling of malaise and "nothing matters"... but if I think about it, I usually find that there is, nonetheless, something I'm interested in doing today. Something that could improve someone else's life; something that would make me feel happy or inspired; something I could share with someone I care about. To my mind, meaning in my life is built out of a long accumulation of small moments like that.

Also, reading Kurt Vonnegut's The Sirens of Titan gave me some very useful perspective on the idea of "purpose."

Also, lifting weights sometimes magically cures this sense of meaninglessness with no further effort on my part. Try some standard depression advice; it might help.