If Life Feels Meaningless, Here’s What to Do

Does your life feel meaningless?

Perhaps the problem is that you’re focusing excessively on yourself.

When we become consumed by our own self-narrative and lost in endless self-reflection, we cut ourselves off.

We become trapped on a tiny ego-island and all of our perceived “problems” become magnified and catastrophized.

In such a situation, a person needs to find a way to zoom out and reconnect with the world—to realize they are one node in an interconnected network of earthly beings, inseparable from everything else.

In other words, they need to realize that their sense of isolation and nihilism is an ego-driven delusion.

One way to realize this is to deliberately start doing things to benefit others.

It might sound trite or oversimplified, but for me this is a timeless gemstone of truth:

Life will begin to flow and feel immensely meaningful when you fall in love with sharing your gifts to help other sentient beings.

Reorient yourself away from endless self-introspection and instead start directing a lot of your time and energy into useful and/or beautiful projects that benefit others.

When you do this, you will begin to experience a shift in the quality of your conscious experience.

You will begin to feel enmeshed in a worldwide web of significance, rather than experiencing yourself as a puny schooner adrift on a black sea of hopelessness.

“We’re all just walking each other home,” as Ram Dass put it.

We are here to share our gifts, plain and simple.

We are here to share our gifts in service of the community of sentient life in the Cosmos.

We are here to contribute to the realization of the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.

When we’re not doing this—when we’re lost in introspection and passive consumption of life—it’s no wonder that we start to feel like shit.

What could be more depressing than thinking only of your tiny individual self and directing no energy or effort toward creating beautiful/useful things or helping others?

Millennia ago, such a message would have been intuitively understood by everyone. It wouldn’t need to be stated.

In those days, boundaries between self and other, self and tribe, self and Nature, self and Earth, were understood to be porous and illusory. No one felt themselves to be an amputated island of individuality.

But then humanity went on a several-thousand year ego trip and got super invested in the idea of a separate self stumbling about in a foreign Cosmos. Our egos became supernormally bloated.

We are now beginning to awaken from this nightmare.

Millions of people are re-awakening to the realization that separation is an illusion.

You didn’t come into this world; you came out of it, like a leaf from a tree.

You are fundamentally connected to this Earth and this Cosmos.

You belong here, just as much as a tangerine or tree kangaroo.

Maybe you understand this intellectually, but you don’t really feel it in your bones.

If that’s the case, there are a variety of things you might do: Spend time in nature. Spend more time with loved ones. Make some art. Listen to Alan Watts. Meditate. Use entheogens consciously. Attend one of our psychedelic retreats. Take our spiritual obstacle course.

But I think one of the most tried-and-true methods of reconnection you can employ is this: Just start helping, however you can.

Share your gifts. Create useful/beautiful things from a place of love. Be there for the people around you; truly listen to understand and respond. Empathize. Care. Show love. Contribute to beautiful projects.

Sound difficult?

In some ways it is, in some ways it isn’t. Once you start doing these things you’ll likely realize how good it feels and fall in love with contributing to a more beautiful world.

This is what’s happened for me. I truly love sharing my gifts to help others.

That doesn’t mean it isn’t difficult sometimes; sometimes life is damn difficult, though if you look closely enough there always seem to be gems and gifts hidden within the ostensible mud. Through the tough times you get stronger, deeper, more profound, more compassionate; you level up.

As the Founder of HighExistence Jordan Lejuwaan recently put it: “That difficult thing you’re dealing with now is just training for that massive/incredible thing coming to you next.”

This sort of attitude is a kind of magic spell capable of transmuting even the most difficult times into fertile soil from which power-ups and invaluable life lessons can emerge.

It’s also useful to remember: Unpleasant emotional states are an irrevocable part of being human.

If you aspire to eliminate these states entirely, you will not succeed.

Better to focus on accepting them deeply, observing and allowing them with gentleness, self-compassion, and curiosity.

That’s when they start to teach you the crucial shit you can’t learn anywhere else.

And while you’re in the midst of those difficult times—perhaps especially when you’re in the midst of those difficult times—don’t forget:

Help others.

Be kind.

Be there for people.

Create and build from a place of love.

This is the path to a soul-nourishing reunion with the world and a life overflowing with meaning.

And the cool thing is you can start right this moment.

Random acts of kindness are always available.

Now is always the perfect time to start creating from the heart.

In every moment we can begin sculpting our lives into works of art, infused with love.

So what are you waiting for?

Jump on this wavelength.

It feels good up here.

Kindness and love are cool again.

Let it flow.

Feel the path.

Open up.

The answers are within you.

Stop thinking so much and feel them.

Cheers to making this Earth a radder and more radiant space-diamond.

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If you loved this, you’ll likely appreciate this post: ‘5 Unexpected Reasons Modern Life Depresses Many People.’

If you’re ready to awaken from the illusion of separation, consider taking our spiritual obstacle course.