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How do you deal with a existential crisis?

How to you come to terms with the fact that you will eventually not exist?

Rant: This has been keeping me up at night for way too long and every time I think about it I feel like am literally choking on my own thoughts. I have other shit to do but everything seems so inconsequential next to this. I just can’t comprehend why or how the universe even exists or how a bunch of atoms can think or that quantum mechanics literally revealed that the world is not loaded when you are not looking like how tf do you know that I am observing something.

Btw I am not looking for a purpose in life although this may be interpreted as me asking for that.

If anyone has the same problem as me good luck my friend just know that you are not alone.

SwingingTheLamp ,

I take comfort from the Good Book. And by that, I mean Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. The Tralfamadorean take is comforting. My conscious experience may its reach endpoint, but my existence will still have been, so to speak, embedded in the mountain range of time. The calypsos of Bokononism in Cat’s Cradle are good, too. Think of all the mud that didn’t even get to sit up and look around.

Furthermore, there’s a parable about the mountain, the one that a little bird comes along once every 100 years and scrapes its beak upon. When that mountain is worn away, only the first instant of eternity will have passed. Do we ever stop to think about what it would actually mean to exist forever? If it were infinite life, then once you’ve done everything that you enjoy for the billionth time and gotten so thoroughly bored of it, hey, you still have infinite time to go! After the Sun goes supernova and consumes the Earth, what will you do while floating in space for a few trillion years? If it’s existence after death, then a century or so of life will be as nothing compared to the vast sweep of eternity in the afterlife. Any number divided by infinity, and all.

Honestly, I figure that the urge to “live forever” is in actuality a desire to put off the existential crises to an indefinite time in the future. Cosmic procrastination. But living literally forever has its own (probably worse) existential horror. Everything has to end, especially in a universe that will end or at least cease being interesting, and that’s the only way that life can have any meaning.

The existential crisis comes no matter how long the Fates trim your strand, eventually you stare down the end. It’s just the price of admission.

Kindness ,

Existential Crises Have an End.

How would you deal with an indeterminate life?

What if you just continued to exist without end, watching everything you love disappear? Family, friends, trends, places, things. Everything is ephemeral, including you. But if you weren’t, what purpose would your life serve? If you had no end? What meaning is there in existing indefinitely? Would you seize the day? Make every day count? Would you just exist without putting any effort in? Would you turn in circles asking yourself why you, what for, to what end if you have none? What would you look like, if you had an infinite amount of time to puzzle over the question you’re asking yourself now?

For me, the situation didn’t change. So what if I’ve got an infinite lifespan? The “Big Questions” are practically the same. When I look at how mind-boggling the universe is compared to me, how huge; how intricate; how minuscule the pieces are; and how (in)significant I am, it’s easy to get lost in between. Then I’ll take a deep breath, see the beauty of everyday mundanity, and remind myself: I don’t need to go looking for the big picture. For me, I should be the big picture.

There is an ominous, unknown, and imagined cloud, which exists only in your mind. You may go about fearing it, and make the time before the actual storm more miserable. Alternatively, and possibly preferably, you can laugh, cry, and spend your time doing what’s best for you and those around you. Not a purpose, just a mindset. And that’s my big picture. My tapestry. The story I tell is guaranteed to end, be forgotten. But my decisions, I am bound to live with… for a lifetime. Until the end of my tapestry. Focus less on what is outside your tapestry, unless you like it. You can decide some of the things that enter your tapestry, if you are conscious and purposeful about obtaining it.

Perhaps a more practical answer is: When you are doing something, do it. Reserve your focus for what you want to focus on.

You have a finite amount of time in front of you, right now. Question for question, what are you going to do with that time?

confluence ,

I remember that I didn’t exist before and that was fine.

A touch of humility helps too… why should I get benefits that beetles and dogs don’t?

Life only exists because of death. I wouldn’t want to take life away from the world by avoiding something I’m not meant to avoid.

Godric ,

I dont think anyone can exist without taking life from the world. Each meal is taking life away from this world, even vegans deny a seed a chance to become a plant, or injure a plant by harvesting it.

confluence ,

Yes, and so I must give it back.

letsgo ,

The Book of Ecclesiastes might be helpful here. “Everything is meaningless!”

Its conclusion is to find stuff you enjoy doing and do it because you enjoy doing it.

HowMany ,

How do you deal with a existential crisis?

I bring in the heavy guns… that’s right, the Ghost Busters.

"“My philosophy is that worrying means you suffer twice.” - Newt Scamander

Aux ,

I don’t have a crisis, problem solved.

OneWomanCreamTeam ,

Honestly not well.

I’ve come to terms with the fact that I will one day die, and it could happen at any moment. The hard part is knowing that’s true for everyone I love too.

mrcleanup ,

Try to remember, you have not existed before, this isn’t something new.

And the fact that nothing matters means that we get to choose what matters ourselves, it could be money, fame, competence, love. You get to choose what to invest your time in and your choices will change the world bit by bit.

What kind of world do you want to help create?

1984 ,
@1984@lemmy.today avatar

This is like me at 20. :)

sours ,

I’ve been forced to exist and not exist. THAT’S TWO WHOLE THINGS. I Didn’t even wanna do one thing! Someone has to pay for this! I wanna speak to a manager.

mrcleanup ,

You are not alone, some people believe that at the very end instead of ceasing to exist, you do, in fact, get to speak to the manager.

EternalNicodemus ,
@EternalNicodemus@lemmy.world avatar

God wants me to do something before I leave this wonderful planet, that’s why I live :)

Rockyrikoko ,

deleted_by_author

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    EternalNicodemus ,
    @EternalNicodemus@lemmy.world avatar

    Maybe lmao

    1984 ,
    @1984@lemmy.today avatar

    I had a conversation with my girlfriend a few days ago about this. We are fine, everything is good, but if an asteroid would come in a few days, we would both be OK with it.

    I guess that’s weird to most people.

    PaulSmackage ,
    @PaulSmackage@hexbear.net avatar

    “Every man has two deaths, when he is buried in the ground and the last time someone says his name.”

    As long as i am remembered, i exist. While my physical form may be rotting, i will hope that i made as much of an impact in this world as i did to me, and hope that my memory will never fade. It is for that reason that i keep soldiering on, never looking back, and trying to contribute to a better world.

    PsychedSy ,

    Mushrooms and/or LSD.

    TheButtonJustSpins ,

    I just avoid thinking about it. There’s other stuff to do. Find a hobby.

    chauncey ,

    Remember what it was like before you were born? It’s like that

    PeWu ,

    You give me hopes with this.

    mojo ,

    I think of how small I am in the universe. We’re all just memories at the end of the day, so try to leave nice ones.

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