What is The Meaning of Life?

Choose to become the best version of yourself today and refuse to delay the process (your progress) any longer.

By Ramandeep Kaur Sangha, Psychology Graduate.

Many of us question life. “Why am I here?”, “What is my purpose in this life?”, “What even is, life?”.

The answers to these questions will vary from person to person. If someone were asking me these questions, I’d say life is what you make it; enhanced by being engaged with, and conscious of, the following things:

Experiences

Life is made up of our experiences, the big life-changing experiences to the small daily experiences we do not tend to notice - and everything in between. Our experiences make us who we are, shaping us over time, impacting and altering our mindset, thoughts, beliefs, actions, and character. Whether it be consciously or not, our experiences impact us in every way possible.

As our lived experiences have the power to generate significant changes in our values, identity, and life-path etc., it’s therefore important to be vigilant of what we participate in and what happens around us. Thus, if we make the conscious decision to only participate in experiences that will better ourselves and have a wider positive impact, we over time can enhance our quality of life and the effect we have on our social world.

There are 24 hours in a day, choose to experience each moment wisely and with positive, progressive purpose.

Choices

Following on from the above point, life centres around the choices we make.

Reflect upon your life right now and consider the different ways in which your choices have influenced the way your life looks today. Nevertheless, it is clear that not every choice we make (or experience we have), is due to our own control. However, our responses to these unexpected events is what sets us off down the next route of our journey. You may not always be in charge of the direction you travel, but you choose the vehicle that gets you there and how you arrive. It’s important that we learn how to respond, rather than react, as this is what ultimately keeps us in the driver’s seat of our own fate.

Time

Each day I remind myself that what I do today is shaping who I am tomorrow; how I spend my time now in this present moment will have consequences for my future. Once I adopted this mindset, I began to become more mindful of how I spent my time. For example, I made the choice to swap ‘Netflix’ binges for reading a book. This does not mean that I stopped watching ‘Netflix’ altogether, but I made the choice to spend my precious time to better my life, to better my future. I call time precious because that is exactly what it is. The time that we have on this planet is not guaranteed - the clock ticks on without us being aware of it most of the time, therefore it’s important that we treat it valuably and with mindfulness at the forefront.

Mindfulness

That is what I choose to fill my life with - being mindful of how I experience my time, direct my choices, and fill my days. Deciding to read more and watch less was a consequence of being mindful about my life and how I spend it. Numerous research sources have reported that being mindful significantly improves quality of life and leads to more happiness, peace, and purpose. Being mindful often results in us becoming more self-aware; one of the most important qualities to have. I have found that being self-aware has elevated the quality of my life and increased my happiness, as I now engage in experiences and choices that “feel right” and truly align with my purpose; enabling me to live an authentic, fuller existence.

Purpose

This is one of the most vital ventures I believe life is also about. Finding your purpose and living your purpose is a beautiful thing to experience – and something people rarely attain without self-awareness and true knowledge of self.

Acknowledging that we all have a purpose in this life and choosing to authentically and passionately carry it out, is the ultimate life goal. This purpose may reveal itself over time, change or evolve, but it is one we all need to work on discovering and reaching, as this is what provides us ultimate satisfaction and may also have wider ripple effects; impacting the lives of others and society around us. We must therefore never stop hunting for our purpose and work to achieve it wholeheartedly every day.

The message I would love for you to take away from this article is to make better choices, to engage in fulfilling experiences, and to better your life in all the ways that you can – in all the ways that you want to. Choose to become the best version of yourself today and refuse to delay the process (your progress) any longer. It’s easy to say “I’ll start tomorrow”, but tomorrow is never guaranteed. Take this as a sign to do that thing you keep delaying, to become the individual you long to be – whatever it is, just do it. The best time to start was yesterday, the next best time to start is today. Procrastination is the thief of time, the thief of opportunity - so take control of your life and spend your time living your best life.

Your best life starts with you – your life is what you make it.

 By Ramandeep Kaur Sangha, Psychology Graduate.

I am Ramandeep Kaur Sangha, a 22-year-old Psychology graduate. My biggest passion is to help others, in any way possible. As an open-minded and curious individual, I enjoy questioning many things in life. I would also say that I am an information-seeking person; I believe strongly that education is the greatest wealth, something that can never be taken away from us. Therefore, I am continually learning about everything and anything, but specifically about life, philosophy and ethics, spirituality, astrology, the unknown, and of course about everything Psychology. In regards to my career interests, I am interested in Mental Health, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy. Another passion of mine is writing; I write articles about topics that interest me and will hopefully interest others. I intend for my articles to help and support others, to enable others to question life and be open-minded, and to of course interest others and inspire them to share their work.

I hope you enjoy reading my work as much as I enjoyed creating it!

Sincerely,

Raman