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feisty_mermaid 's review for:
The Power of Meaning: Crafting a Life That Matters
by Emily Esfahani Smith
I loved this book. A neighbor was talking about it and it intrigued me enough that I picked it up the next day. The focus on meaning appealed to me because I have always felt that the pursuit of happiness wasn't for me because simply chasing "happy" sounds like a life of frivolousness and ignoring the dark side which seemed an incredible priviledge and selfish (to me, anyway, a former friend and I have had many an argument about this). But to chase meaning, to find purpose, that was what I wanted and in that of course, there would be reward and joy, and this solidified that.
The psychology behind how we frame what happens to us, what we do with our lives, how we see our work, and how we connect with other people to find purpose and meaning resonated with me. People with a higher sense of meaning thrive in every way even though they may have harder circumstances or deal with more difficult things because they are putting themselves into brutal situations to try to be of help. However, even things as simple as seeing the bigger picture at your job (to use an example: a bricklayer was asked what we was doing and he said, "laying bricks on top of each other" and another was asked the same question and answered "creating a beautiful place for a family to live and be comfortable in" ) can make all of the difference.
The author also discussed how important a sense of belonging is to our feeling of meaning in our lives and how that's missing in so much of society today. I could very much relate to that as I have many times in my life felt I didn't 'belong' wherever I was and even though I don't need to be with people 24/7 (and frankly don't want to) , there is a deep sense of comfort and security in feeling you have tribe, your sense of a place in this world. This is actually what made some 3rd world countries higher on the "Happiness" scale than the USA, that people felt a sense of belonging and purpose in their communities.
The chapter that intrigued me the most was the one on transcendence because I have always been captivated by mystical experiences, that sense of reverence when hiking in the mountains or swimming in the lake or just being still and feeling that hum from nature. I'm not ready to do LSD to repeat it like the experiment in the book but it definitely reinforced that I need to get into nature more.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is asking themselves these questions or struggling with their purpose or just feeling a bit lost .
The psychology behind how we frame what happens to us, what we do with our lives, how we see our work, and how we connect with other people to find purpose and meaning resonated with me. People with a higher sense of meaning thrive in every way even though they may have harder circumstances or deal with more difficult things because they are putting themselves into brutal situations to try to be of help. However, even things as simple as seeing the bigger picture at your job (to use an example: a bricklayer was asked what we was doing and he said, "laying bricks on top of each other" and another was asked the same question and answered "creating a beautiful place for a family to live and be comfortable in" ) can make all of the difference.
The author also discussed how important a sense of belonging is to our feeling of meaning in our lives and how that's missing in so much of society today. I could very much relate to that as I have many times in my life felt I didn't 'belong' wherever I was and even though I don't need to be with people 24/7 (and frankly don't want to) , there is a deep sense of comfort and security in feeling you have tribe, your sense of a place in this world. This is actually what made some 3rd world countries higher on the "Happiness" scale than the USA, that people felt a sense of belonging and purpose in their communities.
The chapter that intrigued me the most was the one on transcendence because I have always been captivated by mystical experiences, that sense of reverence when hiking in the mountains or swimming in the lake or just being still and feeling that hum from nature. I'm not ready to do LSD to repeat it like the experiment in the book but it definitely reinforced that I need to get into nature more.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is asking themselves these questions or struggling with their purpose or just feeling a bit lost .