What do you mean?

Meaning isn’t a fancy idea.

It’s making someone feel seen  — even in a small way.

It’s what you feel when your actions line up with your values.

When time feels well spent.

When you feel present, connected, or alive.

You don’t need a “life purpose” to feel meaning.

You don’t have to change the world.

Sometimes, meaning looks like:

• Helping a friend — just because
  
  

• Finishing something you said you would
  
  

• Listening fully, without trying to fix
  
  

• Moving your body with care
  
  

• Laughing with your kids
  
  

• Facing something hard — instead of avoiding it
  
  

Meaning isn’t something you find.
It’s something you notice.
Something you practice.
Something you live into — one real moment at a time.

We discover meaning through living. It shifts and evolves as we do.
Life itself doesn’t hand out meaning — we give it meaning, moment by moment.
We create it for ourselves, and for others.

Wayne Dyer, in The Shift, called this kind of awakening a quantum moment — a sudden expansion of consciousness where we move from an ego-driven life to a more authentic, spirit-balanced one.
It’s when achievement gives way to alignment.
When the focus moves from “What can I get?” to “How can I serve?”
It often comes after pain — through illness, loss, or deep questioning — but it can also be a conscious choice.

For me, prostate cancer was that moment.
The shock cracked my sense of control wide open and left only what was real — faith, love, connection, purpose.
That’s when meaning stopped being an idea and became a practice.

Psychologists have long noted that this kind of search for meaning often surfaces in midlife.
It’s a period of intense self-reflection that can look like crisis but, in truth, is often an invitation to grow.
A study from the University of Warwick found that midlife is one of the most emotionally challenging phases of life — stress, depression, and anxiety peak for many people.
But it’s also a time when values shift: from success to significance, from status to service, from getting to giving.
The pain becomes a portal.

And further research backs this up.
 

A 2019 study in the Journal of Positive Psychology found that people who see meaning in difficult experiences are more resilient, more hopeful, and even physically healthier.
Meaning doesn’t erase pain — it transforms it.
It turns chaos into clarity.
It helps us ask, “What is this here to teach me?” instead of “Why me?”

Finding the meaning behind what troubles you is one of the most powerful things you can do.
It doesn’t mean pretending everything’s fine or that suffering is noble.
It means looking beneath the surface — asking what your challenge is revealing about your strength, your values, your priorities.
Because hidden inside every painful event is a seed of transformation.
As Viktor Frankl wrote in Man’s Search for Meaning, “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

Research also shows that meaning acts like an internal compass.
It doesn’t stop the storm, but it helps you navigate through it.
Those who find meaning in adversity recover faster, grow deeper, and feel more connected to others.
And interestingly, resilience itself feeds meaning; when we endure, we discover what truly matters.
It’s a two-way dance between hardship and hope.

So you can get on the “meaning” path or not.
But one way or another, it will come to you.
Sometimes through joy.
Sometimes through loss.
And sometimes when it’s almost too late.

The challenge — and the invitation — is to live as if it matters now.
To stop waiting for the perfect plan or the right moment.
To find meaning not in the grand gestures but in the quiet, ordinary acts that remind us we’re alive, connected, and part of something bigger.

Because, as Eckhart Tolle reminds us, “The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.”
And when your thoughts align with your heart, even for a moment, life itself feels meaningful.