Immersion
A search for how to live a meaningful life in the modern world. Exploring psychology, philosophy, and the world around us. Let’s dive 30 minutes beneath the surface each Sunday together. | Hosted by Pamela Carey
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Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional or licensed psychologist
Immersion
How to Find Purpose: Do We Find or Create Meaning? (Exploring with Sartre and Frankl)
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Do you ever wish you knew what your purpose was? Does your life ever feel void of meaning? In this episode we explore the idea of meaning through the lens of positive psychology, logotherapy, and existentialist philosophy. We learn from Dr. Viktor Frankl and Jean-Paul Sartre as well as from the Oxford Handbook on Positive Psychology.
Also in this episode:
-- How to recenter when we get off track so that we come back to what matters to us.
-- The difference between purpose and significance (or meaning and mattering)
-- The 5 Whys or what I like to call The Russian Doll of Goals
-- We hear a voicemail from a friend on the idea of humans being natural meaning makers and how to make the process more conscious
-- A more Zen approach when we want to simply live with meaning rather than analyze it
Does living with purpose make us feel more fulfilled? And if so, how do we find it in a world that makes us feel like it is so far from our reach?
Let's dive in!
Timestamps
00:00 Situational meaning vs meaning for our entire lives
01:32 Two approaches to meaning: Sartre and Frankl
05:23 Dereflection from logotherapy
07:07 What are the main areas people derive meaning from?
07:42 Do purpose and meaning make us happier?
10:09 What is meaning? How do we define it?
12:53 Do we find or create meaning?
17:37 The Five Why's
20:02 How to recenter on what matters to us
21:41 Hedonic vs. Eudaimonic happiness
26:19 A Zen approach
27:47 Connection to positive psychology
30:50 Voicemail from a friend: Making this more conscious
Resources & Further Reading:
- Man's Search for Meaning - Book by Viktor Frankl
- Interview with Frankl: Viktor Frankl: Self-Actualization is not the goal
- Sartre and Frankl comparison article/ https://philosophynow.org/issues/162/Frankl_and_Sartre_in_Search_of_Meaning
- Blog by Dr. Michael Levin https://thoughtforms.life/what-advice-do-i-give-to-my-students/ hat tip to Tim Ferriss for putting this in his 5 bullet Friday
- UPenn on Meaning - https://ppc.sas.upenn.edu/learn-more/perma-theory-well-being-and-perma-workshops
- Logotherapy: https://viktorfranklamerica.com/what-is-logotherapy/
Photography credit:
- Frankl photo: Source Deutsch: Prof. Dr. Franz Vesely Viktor-Frankl-Archiv - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Viktor_Frankl2.jpg
- Sartre photo: Dutch National Archives, The Hague, Fotocollectie Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANEFO), 1945-1989 bekijk toegang 2.24.01.04 Bestanddeelnummer 917-9600
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jean_Paul_Sartre_1965.jpg
