Have you ever asked yourself ‘what is the point of life’? Well you’re not alone. In fact it’s a question philosophers have been asking themselves for recorded history. Yet at the same time it is a profoundly personal question. We all have to work out what our own point of living is. Of course, when things are going well, the point is pretty obvious … its love, sex, family, friends and the good times. But what about when things aren’t going so well?
When people get depressed they often spend a lot of time asking themselves what the point of their life is. For these men it is a serious problem. When depressed the world and the future looks bleak. In fact the world looks stripped of meaning. Everything just seems so pointless. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a journey into the depths of melancholia, Hamlet is found asking himself “To be or not to be, that is the question”. It is one of the most quoted lines in the English language for a reason. It speaks to our being alive, and if meaning cannot be found, the bringing of life to an end. It is the most profound question of existence we all face.
Unfortunately trying to grapple with these big questions when depressed is not the most sensible of strategies. None the less the question often presses itself on the mind of the depressed person with some force. How should we respond to a person that sees so little point in life?
My take on this is that just by being able to ask the question is astonishing in itself. Let me explain. Space, as we know, is vast. Millions and millions of light-years pass revealing nothing but stuff. Comets, stars and planets. Separating this stuff is endless amounts of nothingness. Space. Yet in the middle of this vast universe is a small star called the sun with a small planet called the earth on which you and I sit. Here we can reflect on this whole process, and ask ourselves … ‘just what is the point’! In other words we are that small part of a vast universe that can reflect on itself and ask why? It is in being able to ask what the point of life is that the point of life is revealed. Our life is a miracle. The point is everything.
Image by James Dent. Thanks.
Dr Phil Tyson is a Men's Psychotherapist based in Manchester in the UK. He offers:
When people get depressed they often spend a lot of time asking themselves what the point of their life is. For these men it is a serious problem. When depressed the world and the future looks bleak. In fact the world looks stripped of meaning. Everything just seems so pointless. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a journey into the depths of melancholia, Hamlet is found asking himself “To be or not to be, that is the question”. It is one of the most quoted lines in the English language for a reason. It speaks to our being alive, and if meaning cannot be found, the bringing of life to an end. It is the most profound question of existence we all face.
Unfortunately trying to grapple with these big questions when depressed is not the most sensible of strategies. None the less the question often presses itself on the mind of the depressed person with some force. How should we respond to a person that sees so little point in life?
My take on this is that just by being able to ask the question is astonishing in itself. Let me explain. Space, as we know, is vast. Millions and millions of light-years pass revealing nothing but stuff. Comets, stars and planets. Separating this stuff is endless amounts of nothingness. Space. Yet in the middle of this vast universe is a small star called the sun with a small planet called the earth on which you and I sit. Here we can reflect on this whole process, and ask ourselves … ‘just what is the point’! In other words we are that small part of a vast universe that can reflect on itself and ask why? It is in being able to ask what the point of life is that the point of life is revealed. Our life is a miracle. The point is everything.
Image by James Dent. Thanks.
Dr Phil Tyson is a Men's Psychotherapist based in Manchester in the UK. He offers: