I believe that one of the antidotes to the poison of living meaningless lives, is not to change our own experiences, but to seek a deeper layer of meaning in them.
If we only take into account our sensory experiences, our life will always feel dry.
The vastness of the ocean and that of your TikTok feed are similar. Yet, looking at one or the other creates totally different experiences.
One is more meaningful than the other. Why?
I believe this is due to the questions and thoughts that each one of these triggers.
Whereas the vastness of the ocean makes me think of how small I am, the vastness of a social media feed does not (naturally) elicits any kind of deeper reflection.
That doesn’t mean that, through an inquisitive mindset, we can not unlock deeper layers of meaning. I’ve found that a great way to develop wisdom regarding your own life is to ask these 2 questions on a fairly regular basis:
Why am I doing this?
What does this mean to me?
Both of them give you perspective on your own life, unlocking hidden layers of your own self-image.
I’ll give you a quick example before wrapping up.
I was thinking about a dinner with friends I’m going to have tomorrow and got really excited about it. As I started to question myself, trying to understand why I realized that these are (some) of the people I can count on when facing adversity in my life.
It’s more than a dinner, it’s a reinforcement of the relationships that will carry me through hard times.
If we look at our lives with this deeper sense, we’ll develop a more meaningful worldview, better filtering the things we do and say.
That’s part of the Path to Métis.