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On the Meaning of Meaning: What Are We Really Looking For?
Personal Meaning
An interpretation of living meaning is related topersonal meaning, which looks at the personal significance and the unique interpretation of life situations, objects and events that an individual experiences.
Example: Praying at a church or temple has a different, personal meaning for each one of us due to our unique life experiences and circumstances that shape our lives.
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SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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Meaning is the associations that our minds draw
Types of Meaning in Life
2. Better/Worse Meaning has to do with the nature of our values and relies mostly on the emotional parts of our brains: Eating is better than starving.
Meaning is nature’s tool for motivation
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The Meaning Of Life Using Logotherapy
Logotherapy originated in the 1930s as a counter-response to the prevalent theories of the time, and examines the physical, psychological and spiritual aspects of individuals. .
Its premise is that the strongest motivational force of an individual is to find a meaning in life and it was devised by Prof Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist.
The Spiritual Dimension of Meaning
Humans normally function on primal reactions like negative self-talk, emotional outbursts and irrational actions based on outside events and circumstances. The lost ‘spiritual’ dimension of meaning is brought forward by Logotherapy.
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Questions about the meaning of life contain assumptions:
- “What’s the meaning of life?” Assumes that there’s a single meaning.
- “Does my life have meaning?” Assumes (or at least hints) at a “...
Problems of meaning=problems of insufficient value
To find meaning in life, we can either:
- Add more value: identify activities that are valuable to us or we can remove activities that reduce value.
- Change our thinking: Perhaps our life already has sources of value, but we just aren’t looking at things in the right way.