📅 Thought for today:
‘What must I do to be at peace with myself so that I may live presently and die gracefully?’
— Alua Arthur
#thoughtfortoday #meaning #existential #crisis #peace #present #die #gracefully
Existential crisis (“what is my purpose, why do I live”) is something that comes up with clients often.
This is in part because I have a large body of clients under the age of 30.
They graduate, get a job, and then start to realise that their life feels like it is on rails. Or that they don’t have a life goal (do they need one?)
That they have no choice about the destination (ultimately true).
Sometimes they rebel and do something extreme to prove they are “in control”.
As Ellen Langer said, control is an illusion.
There is another group of clients who experience the existential crisis, and that is the over 50s.
I have fewer clients in that age range, but enough to recognise a pattern emerging.
They too exhibit restlessness and rebellion.
In their case, I believe, it is in part a dawning realisation of where life’s journey ends. Rationally we know we all die, but emotionally we can deny WE will die for quite a long time.
Until we can’t.
Finding meaning starts with an assumption that there is meaning to be found.
It is the assumption that catches us out.
