A person has two basic needs: to sleep and eat. When they are satisfied, a third arises - a thirst for meaning. If a person loses touch with meaning, then he has an "inner void" - depression. How to return interest in life?
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 350 million people worldwide suffer from depression. Modern society is called a "consumer society." It creates needs for a person, and then satisfies them, and so on in a circle. The human need for a quick snack led to the appearance of fast food, for the exchange of information - to mobile phones and tablets.
When a person stops in this race of "life", he begins to realize the loss of meaning in his activities. Realizing the loss of a genuine interest in life, he gives it a new meaning. This is how the slowfood movement appears. The human mind is overwhelmed by the information received, and he consciously limits himself in access to the Internet and a mobile phone.
The loss of genuine interest in life is illustrated by an example: how many people "consume" books a year? And how much time does he spend expressing dissatisfaction with politics?
What can help a person reconnect with meaning? The answer to this question is future orientation. If I believe that tomorrow will bring me new meaning, and in a year I will be better than today, then current affairs do not look so unresolved. Lack of future orientation leads to three diseases: depression, dependence and aggression.
Overcoming the semantic crisis will also help openness to the world. Expanding one’s horizons, discovering the meaning in everyday activities: morning coffee, a trip to work or dinner in the family circle. Thus, the meaning of a specific situation that a person faces is the universal meaning of life.
In the article “A Man in Search of the Final Meaning, ” Victor Frankl writes: “Imagine a film consisting of a thousand separate scenes, each scene conveying a specific meaning to a person. However, in the final film, its final meaning overshadows the meaning of individual scenes for us, provided that we "absorbed" the meaning of each individual scene! Isn’t the situation in life the same? Doesn’t the meaning of our life reveal itself only to its end?"