I feel like my life has NO SENSE, what can I do?

At certain moments in our lives, we have all felt lost, invaded by feelings of hopelessness and lack of illusion to do everything that previously filled us, it could be said that we feel empty, dull, as if nothing had sense. We know that it is a shared feeling and that we have all felt this way at times. Rationally, we are aware that it is a temporary gap and a learning process, but our emotional part wants to get out of this permanent anguish.

If throughout your life or currently you have felt this way and you have not known how to remedy it, keep reading this Psychology-Online article where we will expose: I feel like my life is meaningless, what can I do? and we will tell you some strategies to overcome these temporary emptiness potholes.

Index

1. What is the meaning of life?
2. What happens when your life is meaningless?
3. I feel like my life is meaningless, what can I do?
4. Take time to think about yourself
5. Analyze the void
6. Change
7. Take responsibility for yourself
8. Communicate

The meaning of life can be described from four constructions: one purpose, significance, connection and value.

In the first place, we speak of meaning as a purpose, meaning as the direction we want our life to take, an orientation. For our life to be endowed with meaning, it must be directed to an end, a goal. Second, we must give this address one meaning, ask ourselves if something from this direction attracts us and leads us towards it. Next we must establish a connection of this meaning, look for a cause or reason, because nothing happens without a sufficient reason, establish a cause that justifies why it should be so and not otherwise. Finally, the sense glimpses a value, that is, the value we place on this meaning it is what leads us to believe that it is worthwhile.

Normally, the appreciation that our lives have no meaning arises from certain "nonsensical" situations such as the death of a loved one, a disappointment, a failure,... certain crisis events that make us feel empty and disappointed. When we perceive that our lives have no meaning and we experience these feelings of emptiness, a set of emotions and actions are born in us that increase these sensations:

1. Sadness: a feeling sad it invades us, without knowing how to decipher what specifically it is that is making you sad, we cannot isolate a reason. This sadness leads us to feelings of hopelessness and emptiness.
2. Lack of self-awareness: We perceive that we do not know ourselves as well as we thought, we begin to observe that we are lost, that we do not know how to get out of this situation, we ask ourselves who are we? Where are we going? What do we want to do in this world? and we seem to find no answer to any of these questions.
3. Anhedonia: You lose all the interest you used to have in those activities that made you enjoy, you lose interest in relationships, you find pleasure in nothing. Therefore, a feeling of boredom is born in the face of all action and you easily become anxious about things.
4. Loss of responsibility: together with the feeling of anhedonia and sadness, the person loses all sense of responsibility and stops committing. She does not observe in herself the possibility of growth, of expanding as a person, and therefore, she does not risk or live new experiences.
5. Dissatisfaction: Faced with all this set of factors, the person feels dissatisfied with her life, but does not know how to redirect it.
6. Isolation: feelings of sadness, lack of interest, responsibility and commitment and the frustration Faced with dissatisfaction in your life, they lead to greater social isolation.

The discovery of the meaning of our lives requires a lot of work, it can be a job that requires a lifetime, with the need to a great introspection. When this is reached, we find our reason for being, our ikigai, which gives us happiness and motivation in our day to day. That your search is such an extensive path does not mean that the path to reach it is not full and does not allow us to savor happiness and motivation. We must find those facts that make us feel that life is worthwhile, that fill us with self-realization, but How can i reach it?

When was the last time you thought about what are your feelings, your desires, your defects, your virtues,??? We are in liquid society, as Zygmunt Bauman described well, and we walk through it on tiptoe, immersed in constant changes and surrounded by numerous stimuli that prevent us from stopping and thinking about ourselves themselves. We won't be able to reach our meaning if we can't stop to think in ourselves, therefore, the first step is stop to get to know each other.

It is true that if things don't work out at work, for example, if we feel uncomfortable with our boss, we wonder what might be there past, what situation has generated this distancing, what could be done to change it,... In this circumstance the same action must mode. We must consider how long we have been feeling this emptiness, what things in our life are not working As we would like, if these elements have a solution and in the case of not being able to apply this solution, we must ask ourselves why we cannot carry it out. It is important to try to know what is this feeling of emptiness due to, because it has appeared suddenly if it was not there before, what has caused it and what is maintaining it.

If the answer to the previous question lies in your life, if you think that the reason that leads you to this void is that you do not like how you are living, start by asking yourself what would you change about your life today In order to start living fully, what is the dream that you have always managed to achieve; What could you do to start fulfilling it?

On the other hand, we can't expect our life to be different if we don't put our effort into it. To achieve different things, we must change the way we do things. Take risks with new experiences and learnings.

We must be aware that the first action in order to achieve our dreams and the meaning of our lives is to take responsibility for ourselves. It is important to do responsible for the consequences of our actions and lead them independently, because self-leadership will help us give meaning to our lives.

Isolation favors all these feelings of sadness and hopelessness, we are all social beings and we need the other to be able to live fully and feel full and happy. Take advantage of your relationships to promote feelings of affection, love and happiness.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to I feel like my life is meaningless, what can I do?, we recommend that you enter our category of Personal growth and self-help.

• Cabello, P. (2000). The meaning of life. Pharos, 7, 6.
• Gil, F & Breitbart, W. (2012). Meaning-centered psychotherapy: "living with meaning". Pilot study. Psychooncology, 10, 233-245.
• Grodin, J. (2012). Talk about the meaning of life. Utopia and Praxis Latinoamericana, 17, 71-78.
• Frankl, V. (2004). Man's Search for Meaning. Herder Editorial: Barcelona.