Hope isn't just wishful thinking—it's a powerful emotional force that gives our lives meaning. Now, a new groundbreaking study from the University of Missouri shows it may be even more essential to ...

Imagine that you’ve just submitted an application for something important to you: Perhaps it was a dream job, the perfect apartment, or an academic program you’re passionate about. As you’re waiting ...

What’s the big idea? A lot of people right now feel lost, anxious, and despaired. During these dark times, preserving a sense of meaning in our lives is vital. Fortunately, meaning can be cultivated ...

People often tell me they're searching for their purpose, as if it's some elusive treasure hidden just out of reach. They imagine that if they could just find it, life would fall into place. Without ...

King Shahryar, betrayed by his wife, decides to marry a new woman each night and have her executed by morning to ensure he is never deceived again. After Scheherazade volunteers to marry the king, she ...

What is the purpose of life? There are as many answers to this age-old question as there are people, and they run the gamut from hopeful to nihilistic to, well, nonexistent. Here are just a few famous ...

A reader recently asked me to share what I knew about finding meaning in life. It is malleable depending on how we think and the degree to which we do not. 4. We feel pleasure when it appears we have ...

How often do we stop to think about the meaning of life? If you’re like me, probably not much. Even though I may feel a vague sense of anxiety around how my life is unfolding and the inevitability of ...

In the fiction and creative nonfiction classes that I teach as part of the creative writing program at my university, I routinely stress the importance of every story having a plot and a purpose. No ...