What's the meaning of life?
NOTE: Tola’s note is a journal about some activities I engaged in during the week. Let's dive in!
Code.
This week was pretty chill. I completed my assignment on Dray's projects. This was a virtual card project so I got to work on authentication and also getting data from the backend. In 100devs, I've started with backend development with node.js and things are moving very quickly. I've not gotten a hang of the backend yet, but when have I ever understood anything I began in tech?
Since the entire virtual-card project isn’t available yet, this is the link to the wireframe (view on pc) of the parts assigned to me. I have written the code, and I hope to provide a working link when the project is coupled together.
Books.
I read Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl and I was humbled by the human spirit to withstand suffering. Trust me, writing a review about this book was so tough that I had to think about it for three evenings, during my long walks to be able to finally bring my thoughts together.
Man’s search for meaning is a special book to me because, this is officially the first time I am reading it, but if you had asked me if I had read it before now, I’d answer in the affirmative because I’ve read bits and pieces of it in many books where it was referenced. I felt like I had had sufficient information about the book. Guess what? I couldn’t be more wrong, reading the book itself gave more perspective to all the information I had gathered up till now.
The author, Victor Frankl, was a clinical psychiatrist who was also a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp. A little back story so that you can get a context to what I will touch on. During World War II, Hitler established several concentration camps(prisons that house large numbers of people) where he sent Jews to be either gassed, starved, worked to death, or even killed in medical experiments. This was in a bid to get rid of the “impure or diseased” whites(Jews and Slavs(not slaves, my friend tried correcting this)) and establish an Aryan(Superior/pure white) race.
Victor Frankl experienced the height of suffering and observed how humans reacted to the different stages of suffering. These Jews went from leading very respectable and affluent lives, to being reduced to just eating a tiny piece of bread and soup once in three days, and scampering for the few possessions(straps of sandals, boots, sacks, etc) of a fallen comrade even if the person just died just a few minutes ago.
Despite these sickening conditions, Victor Frankl observed how some people were brave in their suffering-how they were able to appreciate the different colors of the clouds, the setting sun, recite poetry, and how they could find humor in the darkest places. Victor concluded that finding “meaning” made these people bear their suffering proudly even when their bodies were feeding on their muscles and what was left of their human form was a sack of flabby skin covering their skeletons. Victor Frankl found meaning in the space he shared with his wife in his mind and also in rewriting his manuscript which was ripped from him on entering the concentration camp. Every day during the 18-hour long hard labor(I couldn’t imagine converting a medical doctor to a laborer), Victor would think about his wife and they’d hold conversations like they were in person.
The opposite of people that survived were people that gave up on life because they had no reason or meaning to look forward to. These people would smoke their cigarettes which they could have swapped in exchange for extra food, and they would urinate and defecate in the same place without thinking about hygiene. When other comrades saw this, they knew the person was going to die within the next three days and they’d watch him die slowly. A semblance of that in modern society that Victor Frankl observed are people that are addicted to drugs and alcohol. They see no meaning in their lives, so they waste them.
One important thing Victor Frankl noted was, that in the concentration camps, suicide was an option. Any man or woman trying to take their life could do so without any interference. All they had to do was run to the electric fence and that would be the end. But through the camp, there were little to no cases of suicide attempts. Now imagine Victor’s surprise when he was freed from the concentration camp to return to his normal life, and found out that the suicide rate among teenagers and people in their early twenties was sky-high. Especially in Austria, a welfare state, where the government provided everything, yet people were losing their will to live. Victor concluded, that it didn’t matter if a man was experiencing the worst suffering in the history of mankind, or man was enjoying the riches of a palace, if a man didn’t find meaning in his existence, the man was going to live a useless life and would likely end up taking their own lives.
To solve this problem, Victor founded the field of Logotherapy to help people solve their existential and sometimes, neurotic problems, through the search for meaning. If you’ve been wondering what’s the meaning of life, I’ve grabbed this screenshot from the book to help you.
Meaning for me right now is to work hard enough to pick up a few responsibilities beyond myself. It’ll definately change after I achieve this, but achieving this is what makes the most sense to me right now. Victor said "Man is a self-determining being and at every point, we determine our meaning”. This is an ultimate response to the fact that while we may not have overarching meaning to guide our lives, we can choose what we make of ourselves at every point in time.
Finally, one of the methods of logotherapy that Victor used to help his patients solve their mental health problems was paradoxical intention. This is the process of making fun of oneself for anticipating a problem. For example, if a patient has anxiety problems, they tend to focus on preventing the anxiety which further compounds the problem by experiencing symptoms like hyperventilation( breathing very fast ), panic attacks, etc. In logotherapy, the solution to anticipatory anxiety is to make fun of it.
A patient may do this by saying, I feel anxiety coming, I only experienced a quater of anxiety in the past, now I’m going to be ten times the most anxious person in the world. I’m going to be the most anxious person the world has ever seen. I will carry my anxiety on my head and display it for everyone to see. The process of hyper-focusing on anxiety has been noted to reduce symptoms in patients. I tried paradoxical intentions on myself.
I don’t have a diagnosed mental health problem, so why did I give it a try? Two days ago, I felt too lazy to complete some school assignments so I said to myself, I am going to be the laziest person the world has ever seen, an epitome of laziness that would be world recognized. I finished uttering those words and it felt very weird on my tongue. Like I am not what I just uttered, and my emotions just contradicted everything I just said so I got up and went to do what needed to be done. I realized what those words did was eliminate excuses not necessarily to motivate me, so I could get the job done.
I believe why those statements worked was because they towed the lines of identity. “I will be the laziest” is different from “I am the laziest”. One speaks to the future, the other is present. I don’t identify as a lazy person in the present and if my actions today would make me identify as a lazy person in the future, it made sense for me to change course in the present. But if the future statements tallied with my present identity, I don’t think I would have taken any action.
I plan on using this paradoxical intention when I am angry or trying to give up on something. It’d go like, now I’ll be the angriest bull the world has ever seen, I will rage and raise my blood pressure to the roof. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to sustain any ounce of anger I hold anymore.
Thoughts.
I became friends with a cat that always strolled to my house. I don't know how we clicked, it just happened that I became comfortable with her and she with me. She'd come to my house and meow. I'd come out, preened her and give her a head of fish I'd kept for her 😂.
She reminds me a lot of female humans. She hates feeling ignored or unwanted so she'd find a way to get attached. But when I want her attention, she'd run away. My friend had commented this was a sexist statement, but I saw the similarity soo.. lol.
Check out a video of us here.
Plans for next week.
Couple the virtual card project together.
Finish up my portfolio(taking too long)
Finishing up a writing gig.
Thank you for the summary!!🥺 This world can be beautiful even in the darkest of shades.
Thea featured in your note!!!