The Existential Playbook: How to Make Sense of Your Life | Dr. Steve Heine

Hey Kurt. Did you ever take a philosophy? Class in college. I I did take a philosophy class, Tim, and you know, it was Okay. I mean I I wasn't completely confused by everything in there, although

I will have to say existentialism was a little more confusing than some of the others for me. You know, all that talk of freedom and anxiety and meaning and all intertwining in the meaning of human existence and yeah, it's just Heav, man. Heavy heavy stuff. It is. It is kinda it can be heavy stuff. Okay. Well, today we're gonna try and make it a little clearer. Cause we're talking, yeah. Thank God. Well, we're talking with Dr. Steve Heina. The author of Start Making Sense and the Professor of Cultural and Soci Social Psychology at the University of British Columbia. We're gonna get an understanding of the practical applications of existentialism in today's world in order to give us all a chance to have more meaning. In our daily lives, meaning is about connections. And uh a meaningful life is a life that is is well connected. And there are really four key categories of connections that are so important to having a a meaningful life. And I think all of these have been under assault for a while. So these are our interpersonal relationships are especially important.

that life doesn't feel very meaningful when you when you feel isolated, that having a sense of community, feeling you belong to a community is is especially uh important. Our connections with our work are especially important where we can feel uh we're doing things that that that matter, that we have a sense of mastery, that that Yeah. And our feelings of connection with something that transcends us, that transcends the uh the the material world. Steve's approach is really interesting, and I love how he takes existentialism, this philosophical idea that we're free to choose our path in life, but that this freedom can also create anxiety.

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