What is the meaning of LIFE anyways!!?

A few days back, I was sitting with my friend, watching 2 & a half men. Suddenly he paused and said, “Can I ask you a question?”. I love questions and greened him. His question ended something like, “Now That I’m Here, What Do I Do Next? What The Heck is The Meaning of My Life Anyways”. We had about 4 hours of discussion on this. Let me try to convey it in 4 minutes.

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

An existential Crisis is a challenging thing. It says

Your Life Has No Meaning!! Your Existence is Meaning-less.

At some point in life, you must have something like this.

• What the heck I’m doing anyways?
• Is there an end to all this grinding? Will the work ever end?
• Why am I even doing this!! I want to lay on the bed all day and do nothing. But then I’ll fail the exams/won’t be able to pay the bills.
• This is all soo stupid. Everyone’s stupid.

Don’t worry; you’re not alone. Around 70% of people in the world have experienced it.

Below is the short version of the conversation we had. I hope it helps.

Shayon: …………………………………!…!..!? Now That I’m Here, What Do I Do Next? What The Heck is The Meaning of My Life Anyways.

Me: Dude, you’re experiencing existential or midlife crises. I experienced it after my college placements. It's a wildly fucked up thing.

Shayon: Okay, so how do you deal with it?

Me: I have read a few books on this. I can share what I have.
Takes a long sigh.
So there are various mindsets to deal with the existential crisis.

Me: NIHILISM. It says since life has no meaning, do whatever the fuck you want. You have no obligation to anyone. No rules you have to follow. No fixed way you need to do things. You’re as free as a flying bird.

Me: Of course, the problem with free-flying birds is that they have to find shelter when it rains too.

Me: Since we have an interdependent way of life. You cannot wake up tomorrow and change a lot. There are specific rules you have to follow. So this philosophy can help you to a certain extent only.

Shayon: “Makes Sense!”

by Northern Diaries Originals

Me: My go-to philosophy is LIFE IS SUFFERING.

Shayon looks intrigued and somewhat satisfied to hear this.

Me: From the moment you draw your first breath. You have to fight for/with everyone and everything.

Bad grades, no interest in studying, Health problems, Sore throat, Rising Expenses, Low salary, No/fewer friends, Toxic work, Judgement people, No vehicle for travel, Over-crowded city, Expensive food, Alone life, Fight with a partner, Breakup, Ignorant children, Sick parents.

There is no end to suffering. As you live and breathe, you suffer. You suffer physically and mentally at all times. Every one of us has at least some health issue at all times—sore throat, cold, back pain, neck pain, etc.

Mentally we suffer even more. Sad about an ignorant friend, Toxic work culture, toxic relationship, heartbroken breakups, worry about sick parents, can’t do anything about the naive child, someone criticising you online, an argument with anyone etc.

You can never eliminate suffering and have a 100% peaceful and happy life. That’s impossible.

The best you can do is reduce your suffering as much as possible.

Bad Grades: Study
Health Problems: Eat well
Low Salary: Level yourself up. Work on a side hustle.
Toxic Work: Change work.
Judgemental People: Ignore
Expensive Food: Learn to cook
Toxic Relationship: Move on

Shayon: that’s like saying if you’re poor, get money.

Me: Lol, no. If you are poor, find a way to get rid of it. But do something. Because being poor is suffering, this philosophy says don’t suffer; instead, work on it, doesn’t matter how easy or hard it is. The end goal is to eliminate that suffering.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

This philosophy has helped me a lot in the past few months. It gives me a new perspective on fighting my suffering.

You’ll eventually fall into an existential crisis when you jump from goal to goal. Since dreams don’t end, they change.

You’ll surely achieve the goal and become extremely happy, but happiness has a way of disappearing. It’s called the law of diminishing returns. The more you get something, the less comfortable you’ll be with it.

You might be a lot happy with the car or bike, but you’ll be used to it in no time and driving it might not give you the same pleasure as the first time.

Instead, try things that reduce your suffering or eliminate it. This won’t make you highly disciplined, hardworking, happy, achiever etc.
But it’ll keep you from being sad/depressed to some extent.

Living in a country like India, scoring 126th out of 137 in the happiness ranking, I guess, at the end of the day, not going to bed low is the new happy.

Thanks for Reading.
Cheers :)