7 Ways To Inject Meaning Into Your Life—Part 5

Today, I am writing to me. If you look around your vicinity, you will find it so hard to locate anything, whether living or non-living that never had purpose for its existence. Think about that for a minute. Everything in life has meaning. For the human being, it is a bit different. Our very fulfilment in life is pegged on exemplifying this meaning as we live.

We Are Different

A river has meaning but it doesn’t feel it. It doesn’t depend on it. The same can be said of just about any creature or object of creation. Even my laptop has meaning but that is not something it feels. The human is different. We have purpose, we have meaning, and we always feel it when we are not exemplifying it.

Of course, as already shared in the previous articles, we have invented and created many things that will help us fill the void created by a life devoid of meaning. This is only a stop-gap measure. We are so much digitizing everything but meaning in life will forever be an analogue thing.

Recap

In other words, for the human being, a life of meaning is not on autopilot like it is for other creatures. The human must be conscious about it, involved in it and grow it. In our spirits, meaning is placed there in the form of a seed. Seeds need to be cultivated and that’s where intentionality comes in.

In order to inject meaning into your life, the following things are to be done at different times

1. Rebirth

2. Responsibility

3. Renewal

The human being is not like a machine. We get tired. We get bored. We get hungry. We get disillusioned. When I had a conversation with a counsellor on my podcast, she told me that a great percentage of diseases that people suffer are brought about by stress and mental health issues.

We can easily wear ourselves down emotionally, physically, mentally, and even spiritually. That’s the most interesting thing about the human. We do not do life on autopilot. When we wear ourselves down, at times life loses meaning. Either that, or we no longer have the unction, power, and drive to exemplify our meaning in life.

Stress Erodes Meaning

As already shared, we must participate in life to bring about our meaning. We cannot have meaning in life on autopilot. When we are busy in the hot pursuit of our purpose and other things that we are passionate about, we are using our energies as we should, but they do get depleted.

I guarantee you that if you spoke to a person that is stressed, tired, mentally, and emotionally low, the probability of them telling you that they see no meaning in life is extremely high. This is notwithstanding the fact that they are people of purpose, already having their pursuits on.

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“If you spoke to a person that is stressed, tired, mentally, and emotionally low, the probability of them telling you that they see no meaning in life is extremely high”

— Lawrence Namale

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At one moment in life or another, we will need to take a break and seek to have some renewal all round. There is so much that comes out of a season of rest and relaxation. There is so much recharging that happens to our analogue batteries. People who take some time to renew and recharge almost always come back with a new sense of meaning in life.

Take A Break, Regain Meaning

It could be that the meaning was already there, and it was just revitalized. It could also be that the rest and the relaxation give them a different perspective of life and thus they get a new meaning. It could be the same meaning that is even made deeper and clearer. All these and more are the benefits of taking some time to renew yourself to inject meaning in your life.

If at some point you feel tired, bored, disillusioned, unmotivated, overwhelmed, and even stressed, chances are that you will not be feeling meaning in your life at that point. The good thing to do is that you walk away from it ostensibly to recharge and refire.

You Are Not Useful Without Renewal

Look at it this way: Of what use is a person that is stressed, tired, bored, disillusioned, and unmotivated? Believe me, you don’t want to come across this person. You don’t want to cross their path. The danger is that as we keep pushing ourselves while in that state, we are quickly eroding both our capacity to serve our meaning in life, and the meaning itself.

In Africa, we do not cherish renewal and rest that much. We think it is expensive to go away and recharge. We think it is exotic. Increasingly, we are getting many people hospitalized with mental and physical fatigue because we just don’t renew ourselves. One of the quickest ways to lose meaning in life is to shun rest, renewal, and rejuvenation.

Focus on Ourselves Again

We need to learn to stop all the traffic and just go and focus on ourselves. I am writing this to myself. I do not remember a day that I have done the above in a major way. I have been doing it minimally, such as just resting each day and taking enough time to sleep. This has kept me just above the waters of sanity and ensured that I still have a semblance of meaning in life.

However, I do believe that I am missing something huge by not taking a break. It could be that I am just regurgitating things. I feel like if I took a whole month and went away from my work, I would get a new perspective on life. I feel I will inject much-needed meaning into my life. From today on, I need to advocate for this and see how best it can be done.