We cannot choose to have meaning in our lives

Many people would say that a meaningful life is all about our way of thinking. That for your life to be worth living, all it requires is a change of thinking. That it is our way of thinking that dictates whether our lives have meaning or not. But this is not the case and I am going to explain why. Perceiving your life as worth living (meaningful), that is a certain mental state. You have to be in that mental state in order for your life to have meaning.

This mental state is not the same thing as thinking and telling yourself that your life is meaningful. There is a big difference here between the two. I have ocd and when I have struggled with an obsessive worry that has made my life miserable, that made everything in my life completely insignificant (meaningless). Everything in my life was completely dead and empty.

It didn’t matter what I told myself. Even though I thought to myself that my life was still worth living and that everything in my life was still meaningful, that did absolutely nothing. My life was still completely empty. Therefore, as you can see here, having meaning in your life is a certain mental state and is not a matter of simply thinking to yourself that your life is still meaningful.

This mental state is turned off for some people during obsessive worries and in some cases of depression. When this mental state is turned off, that makes everything in your life meaningless. That makes your life completely devoid and empty and no way of thinking can make your life meaningful. You have to wait until the depression/obsessive worry passes. Only then will that mental state turn back on.

Once that mental state turns back on, that is when your life will be meaningful again. Everything in your life will be filled with significance once again. Everything I have explained here is my personal experience. This is my experience with having depression and ocd. Many people would say that only selfish people perceive their lives as meaningless when they have depression/ocd.

But everything I have written here is an attempt to debunk this false nonsensical notion that is completely ignorant of the suffering of those who struggle with depression/ocd. It makes them look like they are selfish people when, in reality, it is not their fault since that mental state that allows these people to perceive their lives as meaningful, that mental state is turned off.

I am currently having an obsessive worry in my life that has taken my life away from me. My life continues to remain completely empty regardless of what I do, how I think, etc. and this is not my fault. It does not mean I am selfish.

We are slaves to our self. Our body and chemicals.
Mentalities.

Yes, I already know that. But where I was getting at was that many people think that having meaning in your life is all your way of thinking. It is not. It is about being in that mental state I’ve mentioned.

Then I think you’ve come farther than over half the internet philosophers have been able to get to.

Cause and effect are the main keys for philosophy.
If a philosopher has a false sense of cause, they will not understand cause,
and cause is living, too, so they would not understand life correctly.
Moving up from diapers, to an independence.

The self is a center of things, but it is not really a cause.
I’m sure the devil would be all pissed off at that, and so would God be pissed off,
because according to them, the self is the cause, it is something they want to control and influence.

Not that they exist, but i distinctly feel this idea is anti christian.

It is not ‘that mental state’ of meaning is turned off’. It would be more presentable to reframe it as follows;

Humans are evolved with a generic meaning of life with minor sub-variations for different individuals. The direction of the generic meaning of life for all humans are controlled by modulated activators and inhibitors in various neural nodes.

I believe those who suffer from OCD, depression and the likes are due to the weakening of its relevant inhibitors to modulate the relevant states at an average level. Depression is likely to be due to the weak modulations by weak inhibitors to regulate the related neural circuits of a certain sub-sad-emotion [primary ‘sad’ emotion].
The other alternative is to increase the activators but this is not an optimal solution. That is like increasing RPM in a car to get a car going when [due to oversight] the hand brakes are on.

OCD is due to weak impulse control. Note this,
There are many youtube videos on this and tons of materials in the internet
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFwvzGtQ7LY[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX_oy9614HQ[/youtube]

I also believe the inhibitors for OCD and depression can be strengthened to some degrees and improved over time, especially when one is still young [not like over 55].

Now even if one cannot bring and improve one’s inhibitors to the average level, the fact is there is still an ongoing meaningful life for any one as programmed from our inherent DNA. The only difference is that it is not brought into the higher awareness and consciousness for some at the higher cognitive levels.

Though one may not feel it at the cognitive level from the cognitive sensors, one can still utilize one’s reason and intellect faculty to psychoanalyze the truth of the matter. From this perspective there is a rational sense to a real meaning of life albeit not felt.

For those who want to develop their inhibitors and modulators to regulate their internal impulse, there are lots of techniques and self-development programs available from the internet and others, here is one good source;

amazon.com/Full-Catastrophe … 0345536932

Remove the medical and psychological traumatic instigation for the OCD and “meaning” will appear quite spontaneously.

If you can’t remove such instigation (as is the usual case), the wisdom of forgetting all else so as to become fully occupied in developing, building, or creating small, somewhat insignificant projects until your mind expects nothing else (e.g. shelving unit, garden, decorations,…) will preoccupy the OCD to the point of shifting the feeling of pointlessness toward a feeling of gradual accomplishments. Forget family pressure issues, world or national politics, economic issues, anything else that you cannot directly change, and most importantly the judgmental opinions of others. The feeling of the need to cure the problem fades and is replaced by a feeling to choose what might be an interesting and worthwhile next accomplishment.

Eventually, that famous feeling of “a full life” emerges.

MattMVS7

I do think that for many people, a change in thinking and attitude IS all that is required as long as they’re being honest with their selves. Sometimes it is just negativity and pessimism that warps our outlook. Of course, changing our viewpoint is a process - it’s not magical.

Is it ONLY with a certain mental state that you can achieve this experience? I think that we can also touch on it, experience it without that mental state - an optimum feeling of joy and harmony can come to us “out of the blue” when we least expect it - if we’re not struggling so much to hold on to things.

.

That sounds more to me like rationalizing/trying to convince one’s self.

Then why bother to even take the time to think, to convince yourself that your life is worth living in these moments when during these moments you can clearly see that it isn’t. That’s not to say that there won’t come a time when you realize again that life can be worth living. Mentally speaking, we can think anything but it is our human emotional experiences at the time which say it all, I think.
Struggling and rationalizing does nothing. It’s like when we’re in deep water and tired. Struggling doesn’t help. Best to just turn over and float, relax and let go.

Are you sure about that? Of course, there are idiots and people who lack empathy and compassion who might say that.
But what’s the saying: Grant that I may not judge my neighbor until I have walked a mile in his moccasins.
How totally dishonest would it be for someone with a mental illness to try to convince their self that their life has meaning in the moments (no matter how long those moments may be) when they are experiencing OCD, bipolar, et cetera.
Do you remind yourself though or is it too difficult or even impossible to remember that it does get better.

Again, these are just people who are idiots or people who are ignorant of what occurs within a person with mental illness. You might try explaining things to them but for those who don’t want to see the light, don’t even waste your time.

You don’t need to say but what are you doing to help yourself? Do you ever have free moments when some light and joy can come in even if for a few minutes at a time?
You know, there may be moments when all you can do is spit into the wind so to speak and just say to yourself or outloud? F _ _ _ It. I don’t care. Just take that giant leap into the darkness. Don’t be afraid.
I don’t mean it to be a platitude. When we’ve reached the point where we have nothing left to lose, and let go, that is freedom.

“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
― Albert Camus
ernesthemingway152913.jpg

You have misunderstood, MattMVS7. Your life already has meaning, though perhaps not the meaning you would wish to give it. Perhaps you have misunderstood the concept of meaning, because it appears you are equating meaning with something like joy, maybe approval (personal?), or significance.

We cannot freely give our lives any meaning that we wish, because we are confronted with pre-existing things (including a self, or manifestation(s) we call self), but we do take part in giving certain amounts of meaning in our life through our effort, volition, and overall orientation towards pre-existing things (including our troubles and sufferings).

Life in a large measure demands striving. Our human bodies are fragile and susceptible to harm and have many needs to be maintained almost incessantly. Other humans are difficult to get along with and almost impossible to be truly intimate and trusting with, on an intellectual level.

Your meaning is already there with or without your guidance, whether significant or insignificant.

Some would say that it IS actually the striving itself and the adapting to ~~ which gives life meaning - that is of course unless there is NOTHING BUT STRIVING. There has to be some kind of a silver lining seen in the distance even if it is a faint one.

Perhaps it is the constant looking towards a raison de etre which gives meaning.
But we all come from different places and inner experiences and so how can we tell one another HOW TO BE AND TO THINK?
All we can do is tell and share our own stories.

It has meaning when it feels like it has meaning.

But, James, is this the only way in which we can perceive meaning or purpose - just by feeling it, experiencing it?

I think we can also “see” within our minds that logically and reasonably speaking, something which we are doing, can have meaning, if not necessarily for us, than it can have meaning for others. In other words, we don’t necessarily have to enjoy it but we “see” its meaningful purpose.

Correct but the interpretation of this first hand I ( me dealing with Anxiety, Stress, & Depression) have linked that it’s the way I do recognize certain events outcomes which lead me to think a certain way. So this is from actual causality, it’s not that I’m effected by what I determine to be sad, but the facts from all of that which has occurred. So spontaneous sadness isn’t caused by your way of thinking but by real life human condition. Don’t sweat the small things so much as the big but still you’ve gotta try and pick yourself up after all that has happened. Carry yourself as you’ve carried the world. You can do it.

Partially, there’s been times I come back from a really aggressive and frustrated state only to blow it off and have tamed myself for the most part. Not only was the mental state corrupted but I had no longer had meaning to my thoughts. Not only is it a total blindside to my condition but it throws my entire mental awareness into a frenzy. Composure is a serious counterpart to use when dealing with these perplexities.

Support is the most tremendous treatment. If you live surrounded by those who care, take part and never think for a second that your mental state has to tell your life (no matter how meaningful) how you feel. In this, be apart of life not through your mental prowess but your desire to just live the way you feel you have to live. The meaning in your own life is not determined by the mental state you’re in but yet by conditioning of the person the mental state has controlled.

Breh…

Hello Matt

I don’t know Matt. I agree that such feeling about the value of life is contingent on a mental state. We cannot say if life, apart from these mental states, could have meaning. Someone could say that life does have meaning but that your brain is in such state that it cannot perceive it. Psychiatrists might use a combination of drugs (to deal with the mental states) and analysis (to then help an able brain reach a conclusion it now can achieve).

I agree and this is important to be said.

True… it could have been the drugs to make your mind more easily adaptable to clarify certain things the mental state could not have.

I didn’t mean exclusively, nor joyfully. I meant that merely by feeling that one’s life has purpose, it gains purpose, whether joyfully or not. Cognitive reasoning also applies.

Like what Hitler did?

No not at all like what Hitler did. How did his life have a positive
purpose that did not negatively impact up on the lives of others?

So, I mean, are we tossing this subject to the side?