Experience the meaning

When life does not go according to plan, you are filled with distress, disappointment, stress, anxiety, worry, fatigue, irritation, anger and frustration. The more detailed your plan, and the more you invest in it, the worse you feel when it fails. But you don’t give up. You make an even more detailed plan — you put more effort into it, toiling harder to ensure it works. You plan more to avoid disappointment, but the plan twists tighter and tighter around your neck, constricting you, making it hard for you to breathe.

So one day, you wake up to find yourself filled with frustration and say: I want to give it all up. Retire from the rat race, be freed from all the shackles of life and move away to the mountains for a life of peace and quiet.

But you soon realise that this, too, is strangely unsatisfactory. As you slowly come back to your senses and feel the constriction easing away, and breathe normally, you need to ask, “What am I breathing for?”

We all seek meaning and purpose in life — this desire for purpose drives everything. Sometimes, these questions can become overwhelming or remain in the back of your mind, persistent and chronic. Unanswered existential questions prevent a person from living their life completely and, sometimes, even on trying, you may not find answers.

Life’s meaning is not something that can be simply communicated in words. It is an experience that becomes ours when we let go — of anxieties, of control, of wanting certain outcomes. And one of the most effective ways of practising “letting go” is to observe your breath.

By paying attention to your breathing — not by changing it or trying to control it but by observing it — you feel aware, yet relaxed. When you bring this energy to your life, the meaning of it all unfolds. Then, you do not search for meaning anymore, as you are busy experiencing it.