Living Without Purpose Or Meaning

A month or so ago I wrote a piece about finding purpose and meaning in our lives.  One of my readers sent me a message along the lines of “I no longer look for purpose or meaning in my life because I found it stressful.  I simply live my life.  It is much more enjoyable to simply live each day without trying to make it seem significant by assigning purpose or meaning to every activity”.  As a person who is sometimes obsessed with finding purpose and meaning in life I found this refreshing.  Sometimes I stress myself out being me.  Consciously and unconsciously I have created an image that I feel I must live up to everyday.  Other people also have an image of me that they expect me to be.  I think we all do this and we all have expectations of how we think we should be and how other people should be.  Wouldn’t it be great if we all stopped acting and just be who we really are?  Wouldn’t it be great if we all could just relax and live?  I’m sure I am not alone when I say it can be exhausting to be me.  Sometimes I wear myself out trying to be who I think I am or who I think I want to be.  It will take some concentrated effort for me to simply live each day without trying to assign purpose or meaning to everything I say or do.  Even writing these daily thoughts is sometimes a burden because there are a lot of people who expect me to do it and who tell me how meaningful they are to them.  This is why I generally never write on weekends.  I need a break from trying to be deep and meaningful.  Living without a specific purpose, or living without every action having some deep meaning, is not necessarily a meaningless life.  Maybe all we need to do is what’s required of us but doing it with love, kindness, and compassion.