6 things to do to navigate an existential crisis & find meaning

A political, collectivist approach to the "what is the point of all this?" crisis

A quote that inspires me that I believe applies to EVERYONE when it comes to how we find purpose by turning to community (will expand on it below).

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Here are 6 things I do to anchor myself when I dive down the existential blackhole. I hope they will inspire you to make or add to a “go-to” list to resource if needed. I always thank my past self to have these handy lists in times where it seems impossible to muster the motivation to resource.

1. Creating meaning by anchoring in community & a collective purpose

Inspo: “Artist’s struggle for integrity” A speech by James Baldwin

Every time I dive down the “why am I even alive” blackhole, listening to this ~30 min speech by Baldwin reignites a flame in me. Using his own experience as an artist who can’t deny the painful state of our existence in a colonial capitalist society anymore, Baldwin aptly summarizes the universal experience of what it means to be human. This speech was later included in Baldwin’s beautiful anthology “The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings”. Here is a transcript of the speech.

Some of us really crave a meaning or purpose that serves as hope or light at the end of a painful tunnel. I believe anyone can be an artist. Artists are willing to unlearn the things they’ve been socialized with to embrace the painful and ecstatic complexity of human existence which we cannot deny anymore. Artists speak to our collective conscience & soul in ways that don’t allow us to pretend or stay asleep anymore. “The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible” This will begin to make more sense once you listen/ read the speech above. My greatest motivation to exist comes from not running or being ashamed of our painful reality anymore. I used to gaslight myself or blame myself for not being able to conform & only recently do I find relief in knowing that my suffering is a form of rebellion & dissent. I now see that these existential crises are very much political & push me to reflect on how my purpose can be found when I turn to meet community needs. Baldwin summarizes this aptly:

The crime of which you discover slowly you are guilty is not so much that you are aware, which is bad enough, but that other people see that you are and cannot bear to watch it, because it testifies to the fact that they are not. You’re bearing witness helplessly to something which everybody knows and nobody wants to face.

He goes on to say that surviving oppression for this long is the very thing driving him.

Well, one survives that, no matter how… You survive this and in some terrible way, which I suppose no one can ever describe, you are compelled, you are corralled, you are bullwhipped into dealing with whatever it is that hurt you. And what is crucial here is that if it hurt you, that is not what’s important. Everybody’s hurt. What is important, what corrals you, what bullwhips you, what drives you, torments you, is that you must find some way of using this to connect you with everyone else alive. This is all you have to do it with. You must understand that your pain is trivial except insofar as you can use it to connect with other people’s pain; and insofar as you can do that with your pain, you can be released from it, and then hopefully it works the other way around too; insofar as I can tell you what it is to suffer, perhaps I can help you to suffer less.

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PSSSTTT Reminder:

Part I of the Capitalism 101 group workshop series focused on understanding internalized capitalism in order to cope & divest from it as best as possible. You can still purchase access to the recording of the full ~2 hour workshop & presentation with additional resources here.

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2. Picking one feeling at a time & tracing its root to manage overwhelm or emotional numbness

Inspo: The feelings wheel or a similar journaling aid

Can find the original here if image is not clear