The Power of Meaning: Finding Fulfillment in a World Obsessed with Happiness

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This summer reading list is all about finding purpose, and I am happy to announce that I finish reading the first book on the list. I am also currently reading Werewolf High,  Hana-Kimi, and Queen’s Quality, so it’s taking longer than I thought 🙂

The first book I wanted to look at is The Power of Meaning by Emily Esfahani Smith since I felt that I would be more inspired to find purpose after knowing how meaning can influence life!

This book is for you if you want to:

• understand how finding meaning can influence your life
• be more interested in your job
• find a way to grow past trauma and adverse events
• discover new ways to reduce your depression and anxiety

Inside The Power of Meaning

1. The Meaning Crisis
2. Belonging
3. Purpose
4. Storytelling
5. Transcendence
6. Growth
7. Cultures of Meaning
8. Conclusion

My thoughts on The Power of Meaning

I liked this book a lot and found it inspiring, the only part I had issues to connecting with was Transcendence since I am not a religious person and have still troubles with meditation. But the other chapters spoke to me and inspired me to write in my journal more often to deal with everyday negative experiences.

Lessons learned from The Power of Meaning

• Living a meaningful life happens when connecting and contributing to something beyond the self
• Reseach found that it’s not unhappiness but the lack of meaning that predict suicide
• We need to find meaning on our own
• Ways to find purpose in life:
  • Facing challenges: out of the pain, loss, and struggles that we endure
  • Building something
  • Having a project or goal
  • With relationships to others
  • Having a mission tied to contributing to society
  • Making sense of our experiences and who we are
  • Connecting to something more significant than the self
• The four pillars of meaning:
  1. Belonging:
     • Having relationships with others based on mutual care
     • Having frequent pleasant interactions with other people
  2. Purpose:
     • It doesn’t have to be big
     • Self-reflection and self-knowledge are necessary to find meaning
     • Your purpose can be:
       • a goal you are working toward
       • a contribution to the world
       • based on your values, beliefs, strengths, talents, insights, and experiences
       • inspired by ways to improve our circles lives like family, community, or work
     • It will be different for everybody
     • Having a purpose gives the motivation to battle good and bad experiences
  3. Storytelling
     • It helps to:
       • connect the events of life in new ways
       • gain insight into experiences and learn from it
       • analyze life and change path if needed
       • make sense of the world and our place in it
       • understand why things happen the way they do
     • People telling redemptive stories (bad to good) usually live more meaningful lives
     • People telling contamination stories (good to bad) are usually more anxious and depressed
     • Therapy helps to rewrite stories more positively by editing and reinterpreting events
     • We can find meaning in stories told by others
     • Fiction can help cope with negative experiences
     • Sharing stories help others feel less alone
  4. Transcendence
     • Mystical experiences share four qualities:
       1. passive
       2. transient
       3. ineffable
       4. noetic
•  Growth:
  • Traumatic experiences often drive to help those who have suffered in the same way. It helps to become less depressed, anxious and angry.
  • More people are experiencing post-traumatic growth than PTSD
  • Five ways to grow after a crisis:
    1.  creating stronger relationships
    2. discovering of new paths or purpose
    3. finding new inner strengths
    4. deepening the spiritual life
    5. getting a renewed appreciation for life
  • Contrary to venting, writing helps process events to overcome them

Listen to the book for free

Here’s how you can get your free copy of The Power of Meaning:

1. Subscribe to the 30-day Audible free trial by clicking here
2. Click here to get the You Do You audiobook
3. Select Buy with Audible Credit, you should have received 2 credits for subscribing to the previous link
4. Then you will be able to listen to it online or on your phone!

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Further reading

• 5 Books That Will Make You Find Your Purpose This Summer
• How To Read And Listen To Your Favorite Books For Free
• You Do You, A Book That Will Make You Feel More Confident
• 5 Powerful Summer Reading Books To Make You Happier
• The Best FREE Resources to Live a Healthy and Happy Life

Over to you

Did you read the Power of Meaning? What did you think of it?