At Helen's suggestion, she and I are reading Eric Maisel's book Life Purpose Bootcamp, and doing the weekly exercises.
Week one
Assignment one: Create a menu of meaning opportunities - activities or way of being that provoke the psychological experience of meaning.
My menu of meaning opportunities:
- paint
- move/walk
- read/think/discuss/write
- meditate/stare out window
- Tai Chi
- Interact in a helpful way
- Be kind, make eye contact, smile
- Lovingly prepare food
- Single-task (as opposed to multi-task)
- Loving clean house
- Share a gift with someone
- Learn something new
- have a meaningful conversation/listen
- Be in the moment
- Practice a skill to improve
- View nature - clouds, trees, water
- Be in nature
- Look at art
- Listen to music
- Have physical contact with someone
A possible work day schedule with meaning opportunities:
- 6:30 - get up, feed and walk dog
- be in nature
- 7:00 - Tai Chi, watch sky, move, read, and/or meditate
- 7:45 - Get dressed, ready for work
- 8:15 - Drive to work
- Listen to music and sing
- 8:45 - (at work) - prepare and eat breakfast - look out window
- 9-12 work
- take breaks to stare out window
- 12-1, lunch: walk outside if weather permits, if not, eat while looking out window and read
- 1-4 work
- take breaks to stare out window
- If not busy, read, write or learn something new
- 5 - Drive home
- listen to NPR or music
- 5:45 - Prepare food lovingly, eat mindfully
- 6:30 - walk dog/be in nature
- 8:00 pm - Dance class
Review of Week one:
How was the total experience, what transpired, and what did I learn?
I totally enjoyed the process of planning the experience, but the experience itself was underwhelming in feeling meaningful. Things that I learned were: calling something meaningful doesn't necessarily make the doing of it feel meaningful; and that I enjoy the planning and thinking process more than the actual doing (this is true for many things that I do).
How hard or easy was it to create the menu of meaning opportunity? Was I surprised by any of the items on the list?
It was fairly easy to come up with a list of activities that I thought would create meaning activity - the thing that surprised me was that most of the items on the list are already a consistent part of my life, but by framing them as "meaning opportunities" it gave those activities a special emphasis, and made them, well... meaningful!
How hard or easy was it to create the day with a mix of regular activities and meaning activities?
It was quite easy - this is actually my usual workday schedule, but but framing some of the activities as meaningful, it made me realize that I'm not wasting my life away!
How hard/easy was it to live that day?
It was both easy to live that day (because that's already my typical schedule), and hard, because just calling an activity meaningful didn't make it feel any more meaningful than it had on all the zillions of previous days. So, that made me question whether I should have different items on my menu of meaning opportunities.
Was there anything else about this process that intrigued me?
I wondered if I really know what constitutes a meaning opportunity for me.
Very thoughtful. Both the recognition that you have already structured your days in a way that have meaning for you, and that just deciding what a meaningful activity might be doesn't necessarily give you that psychological uplift that we equate with the psychological state of 'meaningful.' When you think of past moments that did feel meaningful, what was present?
ReplyDeleteMoments that feel meaningful usually involve either the generation of ideas (me generating and/or participating), developing a plan to bring ideas to fruition (as long as I like the idea) or taking action on an something that leads to a goal that I believe in. I actually enjoy many of the ongoing tasks (like bookkeeping and running financial reports) that some people might find tedious, if I find a purpose to them, but I hate when I need to do something just because some other person says that I should care about it. And, sitting in my chair at work when there's nothing to do is one of those things. There are many aspects of my job that I just don't care about and don't find any value in (for either me or the world in general), and I find it exhausting to have to pretend to care.
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