Emily Esfahani Smith, The Power of Meaning

Happiness and Meaning

Meaning is the other path to the good life, and it is best understood by turning to the Greek philosopher Aristotle and his concept of eudaimonia, the ancient Greek word for “human flourishing.”  Eudaimonia often gets translated as “happiness,” and so Aristotle is often credited with saying that happiness is the highest good and chief goal of our lives.  But Aristotle actually had pretty harsh words for those who pursued pleasure and “the life of enjoyment.”  He called them “slavish” and “vulgar,” arguing that the feel-good route to the good life that he believed “most men” pursue is more “suitable to beasts” than to human beings.

            To Aristotle, eudaimonia is not a fleeting positive emotion.  Rather, it is something you do. Leading a eudaimonic life, Aristotle argued, requires cultivating the best qualities within you both morally and intellectually and living up to your potential.  It is an active life, a life in which you do your job and contribute to society, a life in which you are involved in your community, a life, above all, in which you realize your potential, rather than squander your talents.

If hedonia is defined as “feeling good,” then eudaimonia is defined as “being and doing good” —and as “seeking to use and develop the best in oneself” in a way that fits with “one’s deeper principles”  It is a life of good character.

The more directly one aims to maximize pleasure and avoid pain, the more likely one is to produce instead a life bereft of depth, meaning, and community.

Happiness without meaning characterizes a relatively shallow, self-absorbed or even selfish life, in which things go well, needs and desires are easily satisfied, and difficult or taxing entanglements are avoided.

Leading a meaningful life, by contrast, corresponded with being a “giver,” and its defining feature was connecting and contributing to something beyond the self.

The meaning condition:  forgiving a friend, studying, thinking about one’s values, and helping or cheering up another person.  Happiness condition:  sleeping in, playing games, going shopping, and eating sweets.

After the study’s completion, the researchers checked in with the participants to see how it had affected their well-being. What they found was that students in the happiness condition experienced more positive feelings, and fewer negative ones, immediately after the study.  But three months later, the mood boost had faded. The second group of students—those who focused on meaning—did not feel as happy right after the experiment, though they did rate their lives as more meaningful.  Yet three months later, the picture was different.  The students who had pursued meaning said they felt more “enriched,” “inspired,” and “part of something greater than myself.”  They also reported fewer negative moods.

The four pillars of meaning: belonging, purpose, storytelling, and transcendence.

It is difficult to measure a concept like meaning in the lab, but, according to psychologists, when people say that their lives have meaning, it’s because three conditions have been satisfied: they evaluate their lives as significant and worthwhile—as part of something bigger; they believe their lives make sense; and they feel their lives are driven by a sense of purpose.

Some themes emerged again and again. When people explain what makes their lives meaningful, they describe connecting to and bonding with other people in positive ways.  They discuss finding something worthwhile to do with their time. They mention creating narratives [stories] that help them understand themselves and the world.  The talk about mystical experiences of self-loss.

Meaning arises from our relationships to others, having a mission tied to contributing to society, making sense of our experiences and who we are through narrative, and connecting to something bigger than self.