The world, more often than not, is a scary place. We never know what the next moment will bring to us, nor do we have any control most of the time. It is an indisputable fact that life itself is meaningless, and that we create the meaning to our lives during our own journeys, but to what end? What happens if we achieve our dreams and find ourselves still unfulfilled? What if our dreams are only a distraction from the toils of life? Our goals and aspirations are purely Sisyphean tasks through which we must discern meaning in order to gain any form of happiness. The thoughts that keep you up at night all have some semblance of truth. Every day has an equal chance of being exceedingly fulfilling or exceedingly shitty. We live in the void--we live with constant uncertainty; Buddhism teaches us that to live is to experience pain and suffering. We cannot escape the void because we are part of it, but we can learn to love it, and live as free people.
1. Accept everyone, including yourself, as temporary.
Recommended for you
We are all going to die and people will constantly enter and leave our lives in some form or another. Your boyfriend, your mother, yourself--we are all ephemeral beings in each other's existence. Accepting this will allow you to let go of toxic people and hold closer to the right people.
2. Actually, accept that everything is temporary.
Every moment of sadness and every moment of happiness will fade and die. As hard as the worst situations in your life can be, they are only blips in your existence, and the same goes for the best times in your life. Through accepting that every day, every emotion, every moment, every skin cell is only around for a short while allows us to withstand and cherish the best and worst in everything.
3. Accept that the void has dogs.
Nothing to not love about that!
4. Accept that, most of the time, the direction of your life is unforeseeable and out of your control.
You can't predict the future (although tarot cards are very helpful), and you have no real control over the decisions of anyone else. It's better to go along with the ride of life than to desperately attempt to put your life in a certain direction.
5. Accept that the void is a terribly lonely place.
It's not called the void for nothing! Truth is, often enough we are alone, and it is easy to fill the void with meaningful relationships. Nonetheless, accepting that you will often only have yourself to rely on can be hard but ultimately rewarding.
This list could totally be continued for at least 12 more, but these are the basic self-accepting steps one must take to start dropping steps on the path to a very happy and very fulfilling life in the uncertainty of the void.
