Seeking meaning, finding sanity

Greg Jemmett 9 Sep 2020

The Zoom Out function is a very helpful feature in life. This is why we chat with good friends, consult with therapists and take time off to be in nature. We need perspective particularly when we're going through challenging times. We intuitively feel we require some breathing space and distance from the noise, but what is it we're really needing in these times? Yes, certainly there's the triage of important tasks and priorities and weeding out those which are unnecessary and can wait until the storm has passed. But what if the storm keeps going, and those short-term rearrangements aren't sufficient to ground and guide us. Underlying these priorities are often our values and beneath those our sense of what is most deeply meaningful for us. When we dip into our values we can more accurately point our feet in a certain direction, and that is how we try to weather the storm.

Now values can be multi-layered and also in conflict with each other, so it isn't often an easy task, and in fact we may have some values we're not particularly proud of and may be at odds with how we like to see ourselves, and we would hope others see us. I would argue, as Viktor Frankl psychiatrist and originator of Logotherapy does, that finding meaning is more important than 'finding ourselves'. I think this is largely because meaning connects us with others, and transcends who we feel we are or what we're about. As Frankl says 'The more man forgets himself—giving himself to a cause or another person—the more human he is. And the more he is immersed and absorbed in something or someone other than himself the more he really becomes himself ' (naturally, please apply the pronoun of your choice here).

Crises don't always automatically bring out the best in us humans, but they do expose what we value. During the COVID 19 pandemic I've been made aware of outrageous profiteering from PPE, sanitising products and the like. But equally, I've been aware of those who've dug deep and into values instilled in them and set up feeding schemes, and generally sought out the good and welfare of their fellow humans.

So then in a world turned upside down, and a new normal still being rather abnormal, look down and see which direction your feet are pointing. This will give an indication of your values, and what you attribute meaning to. Walk that trajectory forward and see if it takes you further toward or away from your humanity, because it'll ultimately be where you find or lose sanity.