How to Find Real Meaning When The World Seems Bleak

Learn the Difference Between Inherent Meaning & Fabricated Meaning

Bleakness is in the Story, Not the Reality

I know the world can feel dark right now. Between the time change giving us circadian whiplash, and the media bombarding us with messages of doom and gloom, it can feel like things are getting darker.

Every headline screams catastrophe. 

Every news feed offers outrage, opinions, and someone to blame. 

Even the shows meant to entertain us instill a sense of unease.

The media—whether TV, movies, news, or social media—is full of darkness. Governments are disappointing almost regardless of your political affiliation. Bleakness seems to spill out everywhere.

But always remember—that feeling of bleakness is not inherent to reality.

Bleakness is a fabrication of the mind—it depends upon social conventions, confusion, and self-generated storylines. It derives its life from a combination of misunderstanding and misappropriated desires.

But it is not reality. 

Reality is the solid, slick feel of the device you’re reading this message on. 
It’s the heat of the coffee in your cup warming your hand. 
It’s the solid support of the chair beneath you. 
It’s the chirp of the birds outside your window. 
It’s the brightness of the golden leaves on the branch that supports the bird.

It's the gentleness of the breeze that makes those leaves twirl and flutter to the ground. 

Reality—the moment you’re in—already has beauty and joy and meaning built into it.

So Then What is Meaning Exactly?

What do I mean by meaning? I don’t mean the meaning that we assign to the moment through stories and programming. That's fabricated meaning.

I’m talking about genuine meaning—meaning that's inherent to the moment.

Real meaning isn’t something we manufacture through our thoughts — it’s revealed when we feel life directly... wordlessly.

When we drop the thoughts, stories, and commentary (good or bad) and allow what's already in this moment to pour into us—to pour through us—that's precisely when genuine meaning pours into us.

Meaning lives within the inherent fabric of reality, not within our story about it.

And it’s accessible at all times, in every moment. It simply requires our full attention to perceive it.

This is exactly what you're doing when you drop all thought, all stories, and simply watch the leaves flutter in the wind... when you feel what you become as you watch that leaf float softly and effortlessly to the ground.

“The reality is more excellent than the report.” ~ Emerson

✨ Mindful Experiment

The next time you notice a tree that's quietly dropping its leaves, gather up all of your attention and watch those falling leaves with the whole of yourself.

Go inwardly quiet as you do this.

No commentary.

Notice that each leaf falls with its own unique character. Some fall gently, gracefully, floating all the way to the ground, while others dive and tumble violently.

After you've spent a minute or two watching the leaves fall, turn your attention inward and watch your experience as you watch the leaves fall.

Notice that the gentleness or the tumbling that you experience during the flight of each leaf is already present within you, and the leaf is simply revealing it to you.

Then notice that it all happens wordlessly—as an inherent aspect of the moment—and it's only after the fact that your mind barges in, trying to describe each one in words (that's the difference between inherent meaning and fabricated meaning).