Finding Meaning #StressPsychology #Meaning #HappinessPsycholog | Alter Ego
Finding Meaning
#StressPsychology #Meaning #HappinessPsychology
Do we need to be stress-free in order to be happy? Far from it: a healthy level of stress helps us to develop emotionally and attain our goals. The challenge is to identify what makes that stress feel worthwhile.
Stress can make us unhappy – but happiness isn’t the only measure of well-being. It’s also important to have a sense of meaning in our lives.
American psychologist Martin Seligman is a pioneer of the positive psychology movement, which focuses on studying how and why people thrive. He argues that it is a mistake to assume we should measure our lives purely on whether they’re pleasant. Instead, Seligman describes three routes to happiness:
The Pleasant Life (also known as “hedonic” life): having many pleasure and the skills to make the best use of them.
The Good Life: knowing your strengths and building your work, family life, leisure, and friendships around being able to use those strengths to be more fully engaged.
The Meaningful Life: using your strengths in the service of something bigger than yourself – a cause you truly believe in.
A 2008 Australian study surveyed more than 12,000 adults and found that all three types of happiness predicted well-being, but that engagement (or “Good Life” experiences) and meaning were more powerful predictors than hedonism. Pleasurable experiences aren’t antithetical to our well-being, but meaning is more fundamental to it – and while stress certainly isn’t pleasurable, it is compatible with living a meaningful life.
Victor Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist who survived the Holocaust. He spent his career studying the psychology of meaning – and suggested that we can discern meaning through three separate paths;
1. Meaning through creative values. Making or accomplishing something we feel is worthwhile.
2. Meaning through experiential values. Frankl gives the example of a mountain climber who is uplifted at the sight of an alpine sunset.
3. Meaning through attitudinal values. We can find meaning even in sad or stressful situations – by considering, for instance, that we are doing something valuable.
Some other practical suggestions for finding meaning:
Create a coherent narrative about your life. American psychologist Robert Biswas-Diener suggests simple writing exercises in which you can describe the best possible self you aspire to be – morally as well as in terms of achievements – and consider concrete strategies for working toward your goals.
Support others: be generous. A 2013 American study found that people pursuing happy lives tended to be “takers,” while people with meaningful lives tended to be “givers.”
Don’t wait for a leader. A 2016 British study found that, while having bad bosses could make a job feel meaningless, inspirational bosses were barely mentioned: people’s sense of meaning came from feeling that their own work contributed to society.
Living with a certain amount of stress can be tolerable, and even desirable, provided you feel it has meaning.
