How to create meaning
While happiness satisfies the moment, avoiding negative thoughts and feelings may interfere with your personal development. Personal development relies on experiencing both positive and negative emotions. In contrast, two measures of meaning were positively associated with adaptation:
- Cognitive processing. It is strongly related to grit (passion and perseverance).
- Self-distancing. It is strongly related to gratitude and well-being. It seems that creating meaning is adaptive if one can maintain a third-person perspective of detachment.
Ultimately, well-being consists of both happiness and meaning. People are happiest when they pursue meaningful activities.
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Happiness vs Meaning cont'd
There are important distinctions between the methods of searching for and the benefits of experiencing happiness and meaning. Baumeister and his fellow researchers found that:
- Feeling healthy was related to happiness, but not meaning;
- Feeling good was related to happiness, not ...
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