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126 reviews for:
The Power of Meaning: Finding Fulfillment in a World Obsessed with Happiness
Emily Esfahani Smith
3.92 AVERAGE
126 reviews for:
The Power of Meaning: Finding Fulfillment in a World Obsessed with Happiness
Emily Esfahani Smith
3.92 AVERAGE
Smith mixes personal stories with studies to discuss the 6 areas that give people meaning: belonging, purpose, storytelling, transcendence, growth, and cultures of meaning. There's not a lot here that I haven't heard in other places, but it was a nice reminder and I enjoy reading other people's stories.
I sought this book specifically because my favorite audiobook narrator, Mozhan Marno, read it. I thought it would be fluff, but it was beautiful and profound. Thoughtful and well researched, it touched on the ways that we look for purpose and meaning in our lives, and also the consequences when that need is not met. I just devoured it.
And also, listen to everything Mozhan Marno reads, ok?
And also, listen to everything Mozhan Marno reads, ok?
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I think it makes an excellent case for the importance of meaning in one's life. It offered a wide range of examples and practical ideas to help people of any age or situation look for, or create, meaning in life.
Fairly surface level. Interested to read the works mentioned in the book, including The Varieties of Religious Experience and Man’s Search for Meaning. I also must question the author’s decision to derive her definition for awe from an economist.
This is one of my new favorite books. I've read a lot of psychology/business/self-help books over the years, and usually I walk away with a better understanding and a new framework that is helpful. Usually the frameworks are small evaluations of how I speak with others, how I view leadership, or how to delegate. The Power of Meaning had me evaluating my life plans and trajectory by continually asking myself, "What is the good hard thing that I can do now that will have me look back on life with more satisfaction in the future," and then planning from there. Rare is the book that challenges me to reevaluate my being and the meaning behind what I have to offer the world.
I appreciated the stories and the break down of the book. I found myself pausing regularly to think about things like, "If I care so much for the orphans in this story that I'm reading about, then what am I going to do to help children in similar situations?" or "If I find meaning in fatherhood, what am I doing to make my son a priority to not only teach him but listen to and learn from him?" This book helped me reevaluate portions of my life and has started me on a path of reorganizing my goals and prioritizing them differently.
I think the thing this book did for me that helped me the most was reevaluate my relationship with God and my understanding of death. As a child I had a child's faith in God. I believed in Him, but so much of that belief was based out of obedience. As I grew up, that obedience shifted to fear of offending God, and my relationship with God was believing that He was an easily perturbed taskmaster bent on justice.
As I got older, my view shifted. I couldn't believe in a vengeful God. I turned to the scriptures and found verses that instead focused on love, empathy, and compassion. I felt like I better understood the story of Jesus, and I felt more comfortable with the God of Matthew 7:11, a God who was waiting to bless us and is full of understanding. But while I grew more comfortable with this concept of God, a lingering thought always popped up in the back of my mind, "You're comfortable with this concept of God, because that's what God is, a concept."
Over the last few years, that thought has made it's way to the forefront of my mind. Maybe I misunderstood God because God is nothing more than our current interpretation of Him. And if that's true, then religion is false. And if religion is false, then one day we die, we disappear, and that's all there was. And quite frankly, that scares the hell out of me.
So I've seen my faith shift to desperation. I want God to be real because the alternative is terrifying. Either God is real or else I'm living just to die and there's no meaning to life at all. To make a poor analogy, God became a parachute that I was promised that I'm hoping appears when I pull the cord, but I'm also suspicious He's not there because sometimes the pack feels pretty light. And that's how I've lived with my faith these last few years. A desperate plea that God is real rather than a feeling that He is. And it's that fear that stunts my spiritual growth, but until this book, I hadn't seen many ways around it.
What this book has started to do for me, is show me an alternative narrative. And it might be a strange narrative, but it works for me, and that narrative started with a question: If God isn't real, and this life is all we have, then what am I? I believe that that answer is then simply star dust. I'm a bunch of atoms and molecules whirring around in what I recognize as a body, but the amazing miracle is that this specific group of atoms identifies itself as a whole, and has a consciousness to momentarily recognize itself as an entity. And if that's all there is, if that's all this conscious life is about, then what a privilege it is to even momentarily experience life this way.
There are atoms and molecules floating around that do not seem to have the same level of consciousness as humans. It's a miracle that all of me has been placed together in such a way that I have consciousness. If God isn't real, then one day I will die, those atoms will dissolve into the ground, become reabsorbed by the earth, and change into the grass, or dirt, or hydrogen and nitrogen or whatever. Life will continue, I will in a way continue, consciousness will not. And what a privilege it was to be organized in this way for however long I get.
This shift in focus from inevitability of death and meaningless to one of gratitude for being able to even experience life in this way, I believe opens up a new channel for me to relate to God. A relationship based out of desperation and fear of an alternative is no relationship at all. That view has stripped me of my feelings of agency in choosing God and replaces those feelings with an inevitability of choosing God or meaninglessness. It's my belief that my re-framing of the potential purposes of life invites me to explore new reasons to relate to and hold a relationship with God. If I can no longer choose Him based on fear, why will I choose Him? I'm excited to better explore those emotions and choices, and I think it invites my life outlook on God and the alternatives as being one filled with gratitude instead of fear. I'm excited to have an improved relationship with my Heavenly Father.
Now I know that a lot of those thoughts are messy. I assume the average person to read them and think, "That's nice that that worked for you, but it's not really my thing," and that's okay. That's how my mind works in the situation I'm in, and I don't expect it to be relatable to many people. I mostly wrote this down as a personal journal for my future self. But what I do think fits with this book and is hopefully relatable, is that the reason I was able to have any sort of personal breakthrough for myself is because this book pushed me to think more deeply about things that I'd given up on trying to question about myself. I don't expect everyone to come to the same conclusions that I did, but I do think this book can help several people find deeper meaning to the questions and trials that they have about themselves.
I appreciated the stories and the break down of the book. I found myself pausing regularly to think about things like, "If I care so much for the orphans in this story that I'm reading about, then what am I going to do to help children in similar situations?" or "If I find meaning in fatherhood, what am I doing to make my son a priority to not only teach him but listen to and learn from him?" This book helped me reevaluate portions of my life and has started me on a path of reorganizing my goals and prioritizing them differently.
I think the thing this book did for me that helped me the most was reevaluate my relationship with God and my understanding of death. As a child I had a child's faith in God. I believed in Him, but so much of that belief was based out of obedience. As I grew up, that obedience shifted to fear of offending God, and my relationship with God was believing that He was an easily perturbed taskmaster bent on justice.
As I got older, my view shifted. I couldn't believe in a vengeful God. I turned to the scriptures and found verses that instead focused on love, empathy, and compassion. I felt like I better understood the story of Jesus, and I felt more comfortable with the God of Matthew 7:11, a God who was waiting to bless us and is full of understanding. But while I grew more comfortable with this concept of God, a lingering thought always popped up in the back of my mind, "You're comfortable with this concept of God, because that's what God is, a concept."
Over the last few years, that thought has made it's way to the forefront of my mind. Maybe I misunderstood God because God is nothing more than our current interpretation of Him. And if that's true, then religion is false. And if religion is false, then one day we die, we disappear, and that's all there was. And quite frankly, that scares the hell out of me.
So I've seen my faith shift to desperation. I want God to be real because the alternative is terrifying. Either God is real or else I'm living just to die and there's no meaning to life at all. To make a poor analogy, God became a parachute that I was promised that I'm hoping appears when I pull the cord, but I'm also suspicious He's not there because sometimes the pack feels pretty light. And that's how I've lived with my faith these last few years. A desperate plea that God is real rather than a feeling that He is. And it's that fear that stunts my spiritual growth, but until this book, I hadn't seen many ways around it.
What this book has started to do for me, is show me an alternative narrative. And it might be a strange narrative, but it works for me, and that narrative started with a question: If God isn't real, and this life is all we have, then what am I? I believe that that answer is then simply star dust. I'm a bunch of atoms and molecules whirring around in what I recognize as a body, but the amazing miracle is that this specific group of atoms identifies itself as a whole, and has a consciousness to momentarily recognize itself as an entity. And if that's all there is, if that's all this conscious life is about, then what a privilege it is to even momentarily experience life this way.
There are atoms and molecules floating around that do not seem to have the same level of consciousness as humans. It's a miracle that all of me has been placed together in such a way that I have consciousness. If God isn't real, then one day I will die, those atoms will dissolve into the ground, become reabsorbed by the earth, and change into the grass, or dirt, or hydrogen and nitrogen or whatever. Life will continue, I will in a way continue, consciousness will not. And what a privilege it was to be organized in this way for however long I get.
This shift in focus from inevitability of death and meaningless to one of gratitude for being able to even experience life in this way, I believe opens up a new channel for me to relate to God. A relationship based out of desperation and fear of an alternative is no relationship at all. That view has stripped me of my feelings of agency in choosing God and replaces those feelings with an inevitability of choosing God or meaninglessness. It's my belief that my re-framing of the potential purposes of life invites me to explore new reasons to relate to and hold a relationship with God. If I can no longer choose Him based on fear, why will I choose Him? I'm excited to better explore those emotions and choices, and I think it invites my life outlook on God and the alternatives as being one filled with gratitude instead of fear. I'm excited to have an improved relationship with my Heavenly Father.
Now I know that a lot of those thoughts are messy. I assume the average person to read them and think, "That's nice that that worked for you, but it's not really my thing," and that's okay. That's how my mind works in the situation I'm in, and I don't expect it to be relatable to many people. I mostly wrote this down as a personal journal for my future self. But what I do think fits with this book and is hopefully relatable, is that the reason I was able to have any sort of personal breakthrough for myself is because this book pushed me to think more deeply about things that I'd given up on trying to question about myself. I don't expect everyone to come to the same conclusions that I did, but I do think this book can help several people find deeper meaning to the questions and trials that they have about themselves.
Our culture is obsessed with materialism as a means to happiness, but this doesn't usually make people happy...what about living for meaning instead?
breaks meaning down into 4 pillars- belonging, purpose, storytelling, and transcendence. Growth from trauma!
I like the way she thinks- she combines familiar narratives from from phil, psych, and lit with human stories.
Meaning is about breaking away from your ego/"self" and orienting towards others and serving. Sympatheia.
Durkheim- without obligation/structure/family/work, people devolve into "anomie"
Take the time to talk to everyone around you. It's so small an effort on your part, and you can make them feel like they matter.
Psychologists help people with the narratives of their lives. redemption/contamination
encore.org- second careers for the elderly
Frankl- we are saved through love, it's the ultimate and highest aim, and being human always points to something other than oneself.
storytelling- the power of listening to someone's story to make them feel important
end of life therapy to help people realize the meaning of their lives. breitbart.
breaks meaning down into 4 pillars- belonging, purpose, storytelling, and transcendence. Growth from trauma!
I like the way she thinks- she combines familiar narratives from from phil, psych, and lit with human stories.
Meaning is about breaking away from your ego/"self" and orienting towards others and serving. Sympatheia.
Durkheim- without obligation/structure/family/work, people devolve into "anomie"
Take the time to talk to everyone around you. It's so small an effort on your part, and you can make them feel like they matter.
Psychologists help people with the narratives of their lives. redemption/contamination
encore.org- second careers for the elderly
Frankl- we are saved through love, it's the ultimate and highest aim, and being human always points to something other than oneself.
storytelling- the power of listening to someone's story to make them feel important
end of life therapy to help people realize the meaning of their lives. breitbart.
A great read for a cohesive view of individual and societal meaning. Tied together myriad subjects into overarching themes in a thought provoking, research based way. This was balanced by rich stories of people and communities that perfectly matched the research. I've definitely been able to bring this content into the understanding of my own life.
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
There’s a review by the user opalkm who pretty much said it all
informative
inspiring
slow-paced