Is it possible to have a meaningful life?

[Hellonearth]

Having maintained a negative outlook on life for 15 years without expecting any improvement, I've often pondered the feasibility of leading a genuinely positive life— one filled with pleasant daily experiences, optimism about the future, and cherished memories. I wonder if such a reality is more achievable for individuals with loving partners, financial security, stable health and supportive families.

Of course, everyone will eventually experience tragedies of some sort and even death, but I wonder if it's possible for one's positive experiences of life to outweigh the negative.

 

[Forever Sleep]

I wouldn't say my perspective on life was ever particularly optimistic but I did feel like I had meaning in life for a long while. Maybe not that my life had meaning- I think that's kind of pompous but that I found purpose and meaning in what I was doing. For me- it's always been in creative work. I wouldn't exactly say it made me really happy but it gave me a driving force to keep going at least.

 

[Darkover]

living a meaningful life is subjective to the person. If you are happy right now and you want to be happy, you are therefore achieving something you desired. Our reason for existence, in my opinion, cannot be taken from God's, scripture or other people's own opinion, rather we must actively make our own purposes and stick to them with morality in mind. Only by setting targets and achieving what ourselves personally wants us to achieve can you reach a meaningful existence. Only you can judge it, only you can truly at the end of the day say whether you are happy with your existence.

from my experience of life most people are just stuck in survival mood working hard how anyone can find meaning in slavery is beyond me

 

[edu0z]

how anyone can find meaning in slavery is beyond me

Responsibilities = Meaning.... Something bigger than you... Many people find meaning in something bigger than themselves. A family, a relationship, even god. It is subjective for each one as you say.

 

[ScubaCTB]

Having maintained a negative outlook on life for 15 years without expecting any improvement, I've often pondered the feasibility of leading a genuinely positive life— one filled with pleasant daily experiences, optimism about the future, and cherished memories. I wonder if such a reality is more achievable for individuals with loving partners, financial security, stable health and supportive families.

Love this post. We had so much optimism about the world in the 1980s and early 1990s when I was a kid. But how can young generations today have any optimism at all after experiencing this COVID crap and now World War 3? Human life is all about love, family, career, home and community. If you have all of that, then this life can/will be fulfilling. Sadly I realized this way too late, which is why I'm CTB in a few weeks. Humans need other humans who love them. It's like a lion pride. If you have all (the protector male, the nurturing female, joint hunting for food, etc.), then you have it all. That is wealth to me. Money with no family and love means nothing.

 

[TransilvanianHunger]

Is it possible? Yes.

Is it easy? I think that depends on the person, and what they individually find meaningful.

I wonder if it's possible for one's positive experiences of life to outweigh the negative.

As the resident Schopenhauer fan boy, I'd say that such a thing is unlikely. But there is something to be said for human resilience, and the ability to find and hold onto meaning even in the most dire circumstances.

leading a genuinely positive life— one filled with pleasant daily experiences, optimism about the future, and cherished memories.

None of those things are constant. Not even the most genuinely positive life can exist without the negatives, and we're not only talking about major events, tragedies, and death. Just everyday life can and will kick you in the teeth at random, for no reason. But I've found that having something meaningful in life helps you push forward, and even have some fun along the way. Like Nietzsche wrote: "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how."

 

[FuneralCry]

In my case I'd certainly always see it as better to not exist. I don't believe that existence is meaningful or has any purpose, rather it's so incredibly burdensome to exist, existence itself is nothing more than an unnecessary harm, I see existing as a futile process of just waiting to die anyway. I only see eternal non-existence as being desirable as nobody can suffer from the absence of everything yet there is no limit as to how much one can be tormented as long as they exist, I see existence as something best avoided, I find it so incredibly tragic how humans impose it in the first place, those who procreate just create meaningless suffering and problems there was never a need for.

 

[Abyssal]

Its subjective. We ultimately must live by our own beliefs, so my answer is likely different from yours.

That said, no. Nothing matters. There is no point. Blah blah I'm a nihilist.

 

[Lynx.]

Meaning takes many forms, depending on the individual.

If by meaning one refers to the satisfaction of their needs and wants, then surely it may be found somewhere. One can find meaning in having a partner, or being in a financially stable position, or some people find meaning in reading X amount of books per year.

The human mind is capable of fabricating value based on the perception of something, but not necessarily on the thing in itself.

Now, the thing that most people do not want to hear is that, at least as it seems to me and to many pessimists, these meanings and systems of value are a mere fabrication of the mind.
Our values depend on too many variables, and we find meaning in different things - our own mind tricks us into having a preference.

If someone has to 'create' or 'find' a meaning for life, it means that by definition life has no inherent meaning or purpose, since it's not apparent, but rather something to seek. For each of us, the promise of meaning might take many different forms, but the apparent truth of life is that in all cases, it ends in tragedy.

Loss of life, loss of loved ones, and agony and physical and psychological pain are inherent to life - these things don't have to be found, there is no need to fabricate them; they will find you through the course of life, whether one likes it or not.

It seems to me that the inherent state of life is a negative one; desperation is the norm here. One can shape their own fabricated meaning on their journey, but it will never take away the inherent traits of life, which is agonizing pain and constant loss, such as countless beings are experiencing right now.

Tragedy sucks, and life has plenty of it. Life's positives, for all individuals, animals included, cannot outweight the negatives.

A single tear has more significante than a thousand smiles. Negative experiences have more impact on an individual than positive ones. A mere fabtication of meanings and rationalizations can never take away that fact.

My takeaway through the years is that the suffering of living beings matters, and has meaning; it impacts that life, after all. It's not the type of meaning that most of us refer to, it's a rather negative meaning - the awful conditions of life affect those alive, so it matters to them, of course. But it's not, by any means, a metaphysical form of meaning, or something so shallow as "creating art makes my life meaningful", but rather a meaning in the sense that suffering matters to the individual that is in pain...

I dunno. At this point I'm just rambling. To the point:

Life hurts us all; and no rationalization of the mind can take that fact away.