Hi everyone.
Welcome back to Lavendaire.
Today, I want to jumpstart
a new series for this month called "Back to Basics" and this is a series about
spring cleaning your life.
It's about going back to the basics, back to the foundations
of what really matters in our lives.
And today I want to start with finding meaning in life
because I feel like it's so important, yet it’s not something everybody thinks about
enough.
Before I jump in, I have to share that these past couple weeks were like major
recovery mode for me.
I feel like–I traveled.
I went to London and Amsterdam.
And when I came back, I think it was the flight back plus the jet lag, and I don't know.
The next morning I woke up with the gnarliest cold I ever had–not ever,
but maybe in the past two years.
But yeah, I just took many, many days
to have to get some rest and recover.
I'm still recovering now, but I feel so much better.
But at the same time, my website was also down for over week.
And I was trying
to get it back up every day, working with my hosting server and my developer friend.
And it's just things going wrong, all these bumps in the road, all these obstacles,
which I embrace because I know it's part of life.
If life were perfect all the time,
it would be boring.
Life is supposed to be imperfect.
We're supposed to have
challenges and obstacles and things happening to us.
But at the end of the day,
there's still so much beauty in life and I'm still not phased.
I feel like I remained calm
through it all and I can still be in love with life because I have so much meaning
and so much fulfillment just in the everyday.
I guess what I want to say is that everybody goes through their own struggles.
Everybody's fighting their own battles so you can't judge other people.
At the same time,
as you're going through these struggles, it is still possible to love life
and enjoy life and find meaning and fulfillment through it all.
For example: in these past couple days, I've been really sick, my website's down,
nothing's working.
And at the same time, I've been finding such beauty in things
like music in the morning, listening to music, making a green smoothie in the morning,
dancing in my kitchen, talking to my boyfriend and my brother,
keeping connected with people that I really, really love.
And there's just so much to be grateful for.
There's so much love, so much beauty
that I am just having a ball in life still, even when things are not perfect.
So for me, it begins with beauty and love in my world.
And that's where I find meaning.
I see beauty everywhere: in nature, in the flowers, in art, in music, movies, in culture,
in the little things.
Beauty in sleep.
Sleep is such a beautiful thing.
It makes me feel so great.
You know?
There's beauty in so many little things:
a cup of tea or a nice painting on your wall.
Whatever it may be,
there's beauty everywhere and there's love everywhere.
Think of all the relationships you have in your life.
All the love that is around you,
so much so that there is definitely enough to be grateful for.
So let's talk about meaning.
Let's break it down here.
For me, I think having meaning
in your life is having a life that's worth living, having something to live for,
something to look forward to.
It's just something that gives you full appreciation for life.
I really think having a meaningful life is a life that you can fully love
and appreciate that gives you something in return.
So I think you can break it down into different areas.
You can get meaning
from your passions.
If you're passionate about something in life, it gives you meaning.
Whether you're passionate about a hobby or an activity, like if you love sports, if you
love dance,
music, whatever it is.
Maybe you're passionate about your job.
Like me, I'm passionate
about creating.
I love art.
I love making things pretty, like taking photos.
things like that gives my life some sort of meaning because it fuels my passions.
Meaning can also come from your relationships.
Think about the relationships
that make your life worth living, relationships that are so beautiful, so full, so loving
that it's really all that matters to you in your life.
Your relationships with family members,
significant others, whatever it may be–relationships even to people you've never met.
Maybe the people who inspire you, the people who you admire, your idols.
Maybe those relationships give your life some sort of meaning as well.
Next, you can definitely find meaning by giving back to others, by helping others,
by contributing to the world in some way.
This is why service always feels good.
It always feels good to give because I think there's something that heals your soul
when you give to others.
It's kind of like, you help another human being
that connects you with them and it's something that's very spiritual
that just gives your like that oomph, that beauty and that meaning.
So if you ever feel like
you're in a rut and you ever feel a little lost or your life is just kind of blah,
do something to help someone else.
Or give back in some way
because that will just fuel your life with so much new energy.
This is a huge part
of why I do what I do through Lavendaire, through these videos, because to me,
when I share what I learn, what I create, that's half of the equation.
I love creating.
Yes, it gives me meaning, but the other half is that I get such positive feedback from
you guys.
I genuinely feel like I'm helping others, and it's just so fulfilling.
There's nothing else
I'd rather do because honestly, hearing your comments, getting your emails,
just knowing that I'm making some difference, whether it's just in one person's life,
it really just makes my entire life feel like it means something.
So giving back
in any way, shape, or form can definitely give your life a lot of meaning.
Meaning can also come from a hunger or a drive that you have within.
Maybe you have this very deep, burning drive to do something specific or to reach
some sort of goal or accomplish something, to create something, that can fuel your life
and give your life meaning.
That's very specific.
It just depends on your personality.
Maybe you've discovered something that you're very interested in,
that you really want to pursue.
Or maybe you've discovered a cause, a pain in society
that you really want to help solve.
That can give your life so much meaning.
And just talking about this, actually, I think this relates to both the passion
and the giving back segments of meaning.
I guess there's some overlap here,
and I'm sure there are other ways where you can find meaning in your life.
These are just a few that I want to start out with.
And I want you guys to ask yourself
these questions: "What gives meaning to my life?", "Where do I find meaning in my life?"
because maybe you feel kind of blah right now.
I totally get it because I've been there.
I've been there where my life felt like it had no meaning, and I felt like I had no reason
for living.
And it's not a very nice way to live.
It can be very depressing.
It can be very stagnant.
It can be very bland.
And I definitely want you guys to be able to see life
with a new perspective, to be able to put meaning, to add and bring meaning to your
life,
and see the beauty and the love that's around.
And also just decide
what matters most to you in your life, and to bring more of that into your life.
There's a lot of different parts to this, and I know it might sound messy now
because it's kind of disorganized in my head.
But I've made a worksheet for you
that you can download, print out, and fill out to help you explore
what brings meaning to your life.
If you want to explore this topic further,
then I recommend you click on that link in the description below to download that worksheet
and work on it for yourself because we're all different here and I'm curious to know
where you find meaning in your life because it might be completely different
from the way I see it in mine.
So that's it for today.
Make sure you stick around
to watch the upcoming videos in this Back to Basics series.
I'm super excited
to just go back to the simple things and just remember the things
that are most important to us, focus on the stuff that's most important to us,
simplify as much as possible.
I'll see you in my next videos.
Have a beautiful weekend.
I'll see you next time.
Bye!