Why are we even right here?
What’s the purpose of being alive?
These are questions I’ve been asking ever since I can bear in mind.
Now I’m going to provide the no-nonsense reply from my very own perspective and experiences.
See whether or not you agree with me or not on these 12 explanation why life is price dwelling.
What’s the purpose of being alive? Listed below are 12 key causes
1) To outlive
For those who had been to ask what’s the purpose of being alive to a prehistoric caveman they:
- Possible wouldn’t have the verbal or mental capability to know the query, however;
- In the event that they did they’d say “Duh! Stay huge very long time and eat a lot tasty meat garr!”
It sounds silly, however on the very primary stage Mr. Caveman is completely right.
The aim of life is to outlive.
All organisms from the one cell to the human being search to outlive and have an intuition to withstand dying and reproduce.
All the things about us from our upright posture and opposable thumbs to our skill to scent and see is fully advanced (or created) for the aim of us to have the ability to bodily survive.
Nonetheless there are two factors which then come up:
If the purpose of life is to outlive, then what’s the purpose of surviving?
And;
If there’s certainly a degree to surviving, then why will we ultimately die?
Concern not: I’ll reply these two questions beneath.
Let’s begin with the purpose of survival. What’s it? Nicely, it’s:
2) To have a mission
What’s the purpose of being alive and surviving?
The purpose is to have a mission.
On the essential stage this implies to have a operate that’s helpful to your self and others and brings achievement, which means and progress to the world.
The aim of survival is to construct, shield, love and develop.
The aim of survival is to do one thing with the time you could have been given even when its supply stays one thing of a thriller to you or is spoken of in methods by sages and holy males that mystify you.
You could not know or grasp absolutely the origins of life or your individual creation, however you’ll be able to grasp that having a mission and a objective brings you pleasure and creates change and progress on the earth round you.
From erecting the best shelter and gathering meals to inventing new applied sciences that save life within the medical discipline or working to put in writing articles on the web to share recommendation and data with others:
Your life and work carry you objective. Momentary and mere survival turns into prolonged survival, surplus, voluntary objective and discovery of your abilities and passions.
3) Discovering our method within the darkness
Subsequent up, we have to reply the second query I discussed.
If there’s certainly a degree to surviving, then why will we ultimately die?
However first, a observe on why I’m even right here with the privilege of asking this query in any respect.
From the earliest cultivation of settled agriculture to right this moment’s high-rise, trendy cities, there was a concurrent progress of freedom and wealth, not less than for a small few.
In fact this has not unfold to everybody equally and the injustices of colonialism and financial exploitation are a stain on humanity.
However the total progress in expertise and wealth has allowed sure parts of societies to have free time to transcend the seek for primary requirements and ponder deeper questions.
There’s a increased share of individuals alive right this moment who’ve the posh of discovering a non secular path and pondering the which means of life on their very own phrases than ever earlier than in historical past.
4) Utilizing this time we’ve been gifted
So, let’s get to it:
If the purpose of survival is to search out your objective and use it to assist your self and others, then why will we die?
This query instantly ties into discovering our cosmic telos or objective. In different phrases, our objective that probably transcends the bodily.
The rationale we have now a objective and in addition die is easy: we exist and expertise life in mortal time.
Because the thinker Martin Heidegger famous, if every thing was the identical shade of blue it will be meaningless to say that one thing was “blue.”
By the identical token, to be alive would imply nothing if there weren’t such a factor as “not being alive.”
To be alive means to exist in time: the phrases and circumstances of life are, nicely, dying.
However that doesn’t imply that dying is the top of all existence or consciousness, and that’s one thing which has been debated ever since people may debate.
This has given individuals rather more time to focus past simply survival and discovering an earthly objective.
That is the place the reply to the second query comes into play:
What’s the purpose of being alive?
5) To find a non secular path
The primary level of being alive is to search out your distinctive and highly effective objective that can assist each you and others survive for longer durations and discover pleasure and longevity in life.
The second level of being alive is to discover a non secular path that’s true.
Now, many may disagree with me right here. I generally hear individuals inform me they disagree with “organized faith” or discover it oppressive or controlling.
They are saying that whereas individuals are free to observe whichever path they need, the important thing to discovering a significant non secular path is to do what works for you. This rests on the belief that nothing is in the end “true” or “unfaithful” and is extra a matter of being comfortable or discovering what evokes you.
I disagree.
If heroin makes me comfortable and evokes me ought to I inject it in my veins twice a day? Most likely not!
As an alternative, I might encourage individuals to hunt out what’s true. I do know that in my case I’d reasonably have the laborious fact than a good looking lie (take a look at the Black Mirror episode “Males Towards Hearth” for extra on that).
The purpose is that spirituality is just highly effective and worthwhile in serving to us discover a purpose to reside if it’s true.
So, it is advisable to discover a non secular path which you consider absolutely is true and displays one thing actual and unchangeable.
6) Rising from the poisonous spirituality swamp
Initially, to discover a non secular path that’s actually true and pertains to actuality, it’s important to remove these which aren’t true and don’t relate to actuality.
Nowadays with the New Age motion, meaning shedding a whole lot of self-calming nonsense about “excessive vibrations” and “the Regulation of Attraction.”
Hear: being constructive is nice and vibrations sound fairly attractive. However if you wish to really make progress in your self and in your life it is advisable to be skeptical about straightforward solutions.
Many gurus will let you know all about the way you’re trapped in low vibrations or want to visualise a greater future.
However the fact is that even well-meaning gurus can get it fallacious.
On this eye-opening video, the shaman Rudá Iandé explains how he himself acquired caught within the non secular swamp and the way he acquired himself out!
As he says on this video, actual spirituality and solutions in regards to the which means of life must be empowering and true, not simply “comfortable.”
If you’d like actual solutions and also you’re uninterested in oversimplified New Age jingoistic junk meals, I extremely encourage you to take a look at what Rudá has to say.
Click on right here to observe the free video.
7) To be wholesome in your physique
What’s the purpose of being alive?
Nicely as I’ve emphasised proper in the beginning, the purpose is initially to be bodily alive and hopefully stay that method for a big time frame.
As such, bodily well being is your first requisite.
In case your physique is falling aside and really unwell, you gained’t be alive for lengthy nor will you be capable to start exploring a lot of the deeper features of non secular which means and objective.
Being wholesome in your physique is a problem for many people, particularly these born with a incapacity or stricken with critical sickness or harm.
Even to these of us blessed with a physique that’s wholesome and entire, the temptations of unhealthy food regimen, a sedentary way of life and damaging addictive behaviors could be very damaging certainly.
Make a dedication to take care of your physique and your wellbeing will improve exponentially, releasing you up extra to pursue your objective!
8) To be nicely in your thoughts
Nowadays virtually everybody I do know is in remedy.
And you already know what?
The world is fairly tousled, the financial system is inflated and there are lots of damaged households and unhealthy issues occurring from habit to nervousness.
However I additionally assume that psychologists tend to pathologize ache.
You’re unhappy? You’re mad? You’re mentally unwell!
Nicely, possibly so…
To be nicely in your thoughts, to me, means to know your self and know what drives you.
It additionally means to concentrate on the challenges you could have and the actions you’ll be able to take to resolve them.
Being mentally nicely is about accepting that some ache and confusion is a part of life, whereas taking steps to resolve the problem and frustration that reaches the extent of boiling over or changing into actually pathological.
Realizing the distinction makes all of the distinction, in addition to understanding that some psychological instability could also be pure proper now.
Because the comic and commentator Russell Model mentioned lately:
“Society is collapsing, and individuals are beginning to acknowledge that the explanation they really feel like they’re mentally unwell is that they’re dwelling in a system that’s not designed to suit the human spirit.”
Model is 100% right about that.
9) To be in contact along with your feelings
With the intention to embrace your objective and discover a non secular path it’s additionally essential to be in contact along with your feelings.
Relatively than dividing them into the dualistic thought of “good” and “unhealthy” feelings, attempt pondering of feelings extra like pure forces.
Is a river “unhealthy” when it rushes and foams over its banks? Sure, when that floods farms and destroys crops and lives it’s demonstrably dangerous. However when a river does this and it’s loved by white water rafters it’s an incredible blessing!
It relies upon what you employ it for.
The identical with feelings.
If disappointment makes you attain the purpose of desirous to hurt your self or hand over on life, it’s demonstrably dangerous. But when you should utilize disappointment to make your self replicate on what you wish to change in life and write lovely poetry, it may be a buddy to you at occasions.
Because the Persian poet Rumi wrote in “the Guesthouse:”
This being human is a visitor home.
Each morning a brand new arrival.
A pleasure, a melancholy, a meanness,
some momentary consciousness comes
as an surprising customer.
Welcome and entertain all of them!
Even when they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your own home
empty of its furnishings, nonetheless,
deal with every visitor honorably.
He could also be clearing you out
for some new delight.
10) To attach and share with others
The best way to search out your objective in life and to embrace a non secular path is thru connecting and sharing with others.
No matter whether or not you’re extroverted or introverted, all of us get hold of which means by means of some type of interactions even when they’re minimal.
Even in case you don’t speak the whole day and simply go to your fridge and fry three eggs, you simply invisibly joined your self to the chain of people that helped farm these eggs and the chickens who laid them.
On the broader scale, life has a lot potential and there’s a lot you are able to do to attach with others and make an affect in your individual life and everyone else’s.
Because the creator John Inexperienced writes in his 2006 e-book An Abundance of Katherines:
“What’s the purpose in being alive in case you don’t not less than attempt to do one thing exceptional? How very odd, to consider God gave you life, and but not assume that life asks extra of you than watching TV.”
Whether or not or not you consider in God, I feel we will all agree that Inexperienced is onto one thing right here!
11) To rise above the ever-changing tide (by embracing change)
The one factor you’ll be able to’t change is change.
Even after you’re bodily useless the world will proceed to vary.
A stone ultimately turns into sand and even the best achievement will in the future be up to now.
The important thing to transcendence and discovering which means is to search out stability within the change itself.
The method of change is one thing you can also make buddies with by absolutely accepting. Stay underneath the shadow of its wing, and let the tides of change change into your mantra.
As legendary martial artist Bruce Lee famously mentioned:
“Life is rarely stagnation. It’s fixed motion, un-rhythmic motion, as we’re, in fixed change. Issues reside by shifting and acquire power as they go.”
12) To go away a dwelling legacy
What’s the purpose of being alive?
To go away one thing behind after you’re bodily gone.
For some that shall be descendants, establishments, books, concepts, legacies of affection, legacies of hate, revolutions and wars, peace treaties, tragedies and triumphs.
All of us depart a dwelling legacy of some variety, even when it’s solely to the few who knew us or any individual years after our dying who finds one thing about us or those that knew us that touches them.
What is going to your legacy be?
Depart a dwelling legacy whilst you’re alive by making day-after-day true to who you might be and what means probably the most to you.
Stay, love, snort. Or hate life, get indignant and shout. At the very least be actual!
Do one thing! And make it genuine!
Life is brief, nevertheless it’s price it.
It’s an incredible day to be alive
For those who ask me “what’s the purpose of being alive?” I’d must let you know that the purpose is to overlook that such a query even exists.
It’s to be so engaged in dwelling and in dwelling your objective that the philosophical questions fade into the background.
The which means of life is in follow, not in principle.
I really like what Lee additionally mentioned on this regard:
“If you wish to be taught to swim, leap into the water. On dry land no mind set is ever going that can assist you.”
Amen to that!
It’s the distinction of pondering and speaking about love for a yr versus even one kiss with any individual you actually love.
It’s tilling the fertile soil on a small farm you personal after which moving into on the finish of the day and having an ice chilly drink of beer.
It’s discovering God and spirituality in a method that empowers you and makes life’s mysteries come alive for you in methods you by no means anticipated.
It’s discovering true spirituality and authenticity that connects you to a deeper sense of self, a visceral and radical life that doesn’t want outer validation or labels.
It’s wrapping your arms round buddies you’re keen on or your treasured kids you might be elevating and caring for whereas additionally instructing them the best way to be unbiased and forge their very own path on the earth.
The which means of life is to reside your objective.
The which means of life is to reside. Now.
Because the psychologist Viktor Frankl memorably mentioned:
“Finally, man mustn’t ask what the which means of his life is, however reasonably should acknowledge that it’s he who requested.”
