All we need is a little hope

Why look for meaning in life? My ‘long’ quest for meaning somehow ended today morning as I took a walk. I know I write about this often but my final verdict is that there is no meaning to life, life is meaningless so stop right there! 

For those who are doing the work that will earn them a legacy or leave many people crying behind them when they die, I hate it to break your myth – even this is just another form of attachment that you are holding onto. It is different when you do a certain kind of work because it makes you feel whole and content instead of hoping to change lives in order to leave a legacy. That is the harsh truth we may not want to acknowledge because we like to feel grand about ourselves. We are nobody, we are insignificant and in a split of a second we may perish!

We humans don’t chase meaning, in essence we chase ‘hope’ because we are looking for a reason to keep going. Somehow it makes sense why we create our own little world in the form of family because then we have hope alive in our life in the form of the next generation. 

For many people whose life is centered around the service of humanity I do strongly believe that it makes them feel whole and content that is why they are doing that work. Irrespective of our conditioning where we have been taught that human life is about service, it is indeed not. Human life is only about coming into this world, experiencing whatever one can during the time we have on earth and leave without any ‘unhealthy’ attachments. Therefore please do not hold onto the idea ‘who will cry when you die’ because in reality you won’t even know who came to your funeral. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is how you felt while you were alive. 

As humans, we have a constant need for growth and expansion which is why we keep seeking new experiences. If whatever you do today brings you joy then do it. And I am sure humans who hurt others do not feel joy. Our default setting is to feel joy when we practice kindness and compassion. As much as we want to receive love we have this innate burning desire of also giving love which is why we have children. They make us feel whole not because of society’s pressure but because we humans are wired like that. I think over time the basic family unit which was meant to give us joy became like a ‘to do’ list because the society created pressure instead of giving us freedom to decide for ourselves. That is why the institution of marriage is dying. We do not focus on being whole at an individual level hence we find bad relationships in the form of marriage or otherwise.

In essence the people who selling us holiday packages, preaching to us about finding meaning are all actually just selling us some hope disguised as activity. When we are busy working we look forward to taking that holiday by the beach or in the mountains, it is just a pinch of hope. When children go to school they look forward to school holidays after exams, it is just a pinch of hope. When we work hard we look forward to the reward in the form of money, it is also a pinch of hope. When we lose a dear one we grieve but hope that the pain in our heart will soothe someday. Hope has the power to keep us uplifted and going through life and therefore humans keep looking for new things to hold on to. Unfortunately hope must be entangled with patience if we have to go through life. And somehow the technology and the age we live in has taught us to expect loading results at the click of a button which is making us impatient, I am afraid we are losing the skills of ‘going through life’ and I feel sorry for the next generation kids who were brought into this world as a result of our craving for hope but are now being wired into being impatient. Never mind that because humanity doesn’t give up, we will soon build mechanisms and systems to counter this too. 

I am a hopeless optimist and I truly believe that the business of selling ‘hope’ will always be the most sought after. Look at the influencers, they are also selling hope by showcasing their best life and people follow them because they feel hopeful to be like them someday. The missing link is the roadmap to get to living your best life. 

What do you want today? Think about it and create an actionable plan. And don’t worry about finding your true self because I have experienced that it keeps changing with time. Nothing is cast in stone, not even your true self. The true self in essence is just our soul which has decided to come into this material world to collect experiences and learn lessons, that is it! And if you are stagnant you cannot learn new lessons or experience life, therefore keep moving, keep having new goals, that is all there is. However, do have some daily practices/rituals to manage your energies because there is enough noise (and people) around us to destabilize our centre. Stay focused on being grounded all the time if you want to lead a high quality life. Discipline is non-negotiable in all this.

Just keep living through each experience my friend and keep holding on to the light of hope!

Do not worry about nature, it will look after itself. We are not more powerful than nature. The planet has its own cycle. Just do whatever you can at your level to look after the environment but do not stress beyond that.

We cannot create for others but we can create for ourselves. We cannot control others but we can control ourselves. We must take responsibility of our life, that is all there is!

Whatever bothers you today is your work, tomorrow it will be something else and that will be your work, nothing lasts forever so be flexible and embrace the changing tide of life.

Keep striving to make it work but also know when it is time to let go and make way for the new!

Much Love,

Rashmi Yadav

Free Image credit – https://pixabay.com/

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