[excerpted from, 9 Keys to Building Resilience: Health Psychology ©2023]

We begin at the core: a life of meaning.

Humans desire meaning. Some of us are seekers, continually looking for sources of meaning, while for others religion provides this in a complete package, and still others find relationships to provide sufficient meaning, and/or perhaps the experience of life itself. Some may despair, in existential crisis over the futility of life and insignificance of the individual – and while depression is an all too common outcome, there are those for whom a meaningless life is not worth living, opting for suicide instead.

The global climate crisis that we currently face, with its ticking clock and impending climate collapse, hangs heavy; some have become resigned to hopelessness, others fight for global-scale action – and many keep their heads firmly in the sand.

Resilience is required.

Identifying and maintaining a presence of meaning in one’s personal life is key to resilience; it’s impossible to be truly resilient if we feel that life is meaningless. Why would we bother? And so, it’s inherent in the very idea of resilience. We try, and we keep trying, and we face adversity with as much courage and fortitude as possible, each time, doing all that we can to recover and to thrive, precisely because life is meaningful and holds value for us.

In psychology, personal meaning construction is divided into ‘presence of meaning’ and ‘search for meaning’. Part of the trauma of major adversity, such as natural disaster, comes in the form of a sudden loss of meaning: the life we had yesterday has been shattered, everything is upside-down, and we have lost faith – in our deity, in an essentially benevolent universe, in humanity, in the very idea of meaning. A renewed search for meaning is an integral part of resilience, then; when all is lost, we first make efforts to stabilize our circumstances and to restore safety, then we reassemble our lives, and as we’re doing so, we must also reestablish a sense of meaning. This may well have changed, or we may eventually revert to our original sources; meaning can also be gleaned from the crisis itself.

A primary source of meaning in my own life is that of the natural world; for me, this is ecopsychology, ecospirituality, deep ecology – and fundamental. Weekly, I immerse myself in nature on a tiny island near my urban home; my day begins with an hour of traversing the sea, followed by solo trekking on the island for a couple of hours, often without encountering another human – but plenty of other species. During this time I engage in moving meditation, then deep trance at the island’s peak, and provide food offerings to the various creatures I encounter. Later, sitting at sea level, I engage in journal-writing to reflect on the earlier experience. Nature is my respite and solace, a source of wellbeing, my therapy – and has been a deep and abiding sense of meaning through my 6 decades of life thus far.

We often hear ‘meaning’ and ‘purpose’ together, and some equate the two. The latter is goal-driven, however, in that we have goals – or an overarching primary goal – in life toward which we are taking measures to achieve, and which is also required for psychological health. Meaning, however, is values-based, and while it can change at various stages of life or in the face of a change in circumstance, it’s more static than dynamic – not stable and fixed per se, but we aren’t working toward it as we do in regard to purpose. Meaning is present in one’s life – or, one is searching for meaning.

In a broad review of the research, King and Hicks (2021) determined that presence of meaning in one’s personal life provides coherence, and significance; we comprehend why we live, and life makes sense to us. We also often find purpose alongside, as mentioned, while our sense of meaning is consistent with that of our self-identity, and may enhance our self-awareness in turn. As well, we have a sense that we matter to others, that our life, even if we aren’t personally facilitating global-scale change, does in fact have some impact. Such meaning is gleaned from ordinary life experiences – social relationships, routines, and the pursuit of our goals or purpose, and a majority of people do consider their lives meaningful.

The presence of meaning in one’s life contributes to wellness as we age, correlating with increased resilience, optimism, and overall life satisfaction (Gellis et al., 2020). Life meaning, when accompanied by social support, has been demonstrated to facilitate resilience and posttraumatic growth – thriving – in young adults who were terror victims (Aliche et al., 2019). It has also been found to decrease distress and repetitive negative thinking in the wake of natural disaster (Ostafin & Proulx, 2020). And in a review of 57 prior studies regarding women survivors of sexual abuse in childhood, van der Westhuizen et al. (2023) identified 4 mechanisms of meaning-making which contributed to resilience: a restoration and empowerment of one’s inner self, engagement of external and social resources, a personal characteristic and value of benevolence, and integration of the trauma narrative itself.

Presence of meaning also contributes to resilience as a protective factor against suicide, including ideation and attempts (Costanza et al., 2019), while ‘zest for life’, a term alternately described as ‘a life worth living’ and as such a construct of personal meaning, has shown strong significance in suicide prevention among young adults, in a review of 37 studies (Shahram et al., 2021). Among military veterans, a group considered high-risk for mental health issues including suicide, the presence of meaning and/or purpose in life has been identified as a protective psychosocial factor and contributor to resilience (Fogle et al., 2020).

Meaning is often equated to religion or spirituality, a key source of meaning for many; in the positive psychology framework, in fact, these are identified as the same character strength, while a relationship between resilience and spirituality or religiosity was demonstrated in a recent review of 34 studies (Schwalm et al., 2022). In a study of 529 adults across 11 nations, who had been in state care as children, an association between resilience, wellbeing, and spirituality was established; poor outcomes in adulthood are all too common for those raised in institutional care, while spirituality was significant for higher outcomes in physical and mental health, resilience, and life satisfaction (Howard et al., 2023). In another study, 39 women from diverse religious traditions, who had experienced trauma, identified their strong belief system and religious or spiritual practices alongside psychological strategies as essential to their resilience (Jerome et al., 2023).

And so, it seems clear: presence of meaning in one’s life promotes resilience, and while humans tend toward a personal sense of meaning, we do well to identify and enhance our own – in order to build our resilience capital.

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Exercises:

We begin with clarity. Engage in various modalities to identify as many areas of meaning in your life as possible. You can include deep contemplation, in which you prepare as if for meditation: quiet mind, comfortable position, minimized distraction, slow and steady breathing; then, begin to look within, seeking out all that you value, all that gives meaning to your life – within you, around you, in your life trajectory, in your family history, in beliefs, social connections, nature, and much more.

Other exercises to gain clarity may include the mind-mapping form of brainstorming, in which you write the word ‘meaning’ in the center of a blank sheet of paper, then as quickly as possible (the ‘storm’ part, to circumvent the inner censor that we all have) fill the page with words, drawing lines between them as you go to denote connections – and when it feels complete, sit for a while and reflect on it. Or, you can engage in journal-writing, perhaps even a dedicated journal for ‘meaning-making’, in which you not only identify but explore the roots and background of potential areas for meaning.

Though we could all answer readily if asked what gives our personal life meaning, this type of exercise is very helpful in discovering nuances, and in strengthening our overall sense that we and our life matter.

Undoubtedly, once you’ve undertaken such activities, you’ll be even more aware that your life is imbued with meaning – but perhaps there’s room for more, or meaning could be strengthened. Identifying and working toward goals, step by step, is one way; self-discovery, learning more about ourselves, is another. Increasing our sense of community represents still another, or perhaps engaging in or strengthening our religious or spiritual belief system.

Nature provides an especially deep source of meaning, one from which many of us may feel disconnected. Commit to a regular immersion in the natural world, not only for the refreshment and renewal that it brings but to create relationship, to understand more fully your place as a creature of the natural world. Meditate on nature. Include nature documentaries and videos; though virtual representation does not equal to time actually spent in nature, it can reinforce those experiences. Cultivate a garden.

Finally, volunteering or engaging in any way that contributes to the life of another person, or group of people, or other creatures for that matter, or to the earth itself, is a direct source of sustained meaning – as we enhance the worth of our own life through our contributions toward the greater good.

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References:

Aliche JC, Ifeagwazi CM, Onyishi IE et al. (2019). Presence of Meaning in Life Mediates the Relations Between Social Support, Posttraumatic Growth, and Resilience in Young Adult Survivors of a Terror Attack. Journal of Loss and Trauma 24:8, 736-749. https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2019.1624416

Costanza A, Prelati M, and Pompili M (2019). The Meaning in Life in Suicidal Patients: The Presence and the Search for Constructs, A Systematic Review. Medicina 55:8:465. https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina55080465

Fogle BM, Tsai J, Mota N et al. (2020). The National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study: A Narrative Review and Future Directions. Frontiers in Psychiatry 11:538218. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.538218

Gellis Z, McClive-Reed K et al. (2020). Meaning of Life and Well-Being: Preliminary Results of the Successful Aging Study. Innovations in Aging 4:S1, 112. https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igaa057.369 

Howard AH, Roberts M, Mitchell T et al. (2023). The Relationship Between Spirituality and Resilience and Well-being: a Study of 529 Care Leavers from 11 Nations. Adversity and Resilience Science 4, 177-190. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42844-023-00088-y

Jerome A, Allen Heath M, Williams M et al. (2023). Traversing trauma: Resilient women’s religious and spiritual stories of hope and strength. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice 54:2, 177-187. https://doi.org/10.1037/pro0000491

King LA and Hicks JA (2021). The Science of Meaning in Life. Annual Review of Psychology 72:1, 561-584. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-072420-122921

Ostafin BD and Proulx T (2020). Meaning in life and resilience to stressors. Anxiety, Stress & Coping 33:6, 603-622. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2020.1800655

Schwalm FD, Zandavalli RB, de Castro Filho ED et al. (2022). Is there a relationship between spirituality/religiosity and resilience? A systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. Journal of Health Psychology 27:5:1218-1232. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105320984537

Shahram SZ, Smith, ML, Ben-David S et al. (2021). Promoting “Zest for Life”: A Systematic Literature Review of Resiliency Factors to Prevent Youth Suicide. Journal of Research on Adolescence 31, 4-24. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12588

van der Westhuizen M, Walker-Williams HJ, and Fouché A (2023). Meaning Making Mechanisms in Women Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Scoping Review. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse 24:3, 1363-1386. https://doi.org/10.1177/15248380211066100