Acceptance and Meaning in Grief

Wasyl Nimenko

Synopsis

Finding Purpose in Grief.
Grief not only puts our loss and our own life in perspective but it also offers the opportunity to re-visit and review the meaning of our life.
Our world may seem as if it is over and we might find it difficult to find a reason to carry on living. If we can find meaning in our grief, it protects us and our health both physically and mentally.
Victor Frankl observed many times that the ones who survived the Holocaust of the German concentration camps were the ones who could find meaning. He supports Nietzsche’s words, ‘He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how.’ [1]
Deciding if someone is likely to commit suicide is deemed much more unlikely if they have ‘protective’ factors in their life, such as close family or a project they need to finish.
That is they have meaning in their life. The principle of having enough meaning in their life to consider it worthwhile continuing living is used by all those assessing someone for suicidal risk.
It is not difficult to find ‘meaning’ in our own life, to have something or someone to live for. But trying to understand ‘the meaning of life’ is a different thing altogether. Perhaps this is best explained simply by the most highly regarded scientist and the most highly regarded sage of the last century.
Albert Einstein says the aim is to stop seeing our self as being separated from the part of the whole, the “Universe.” He calls it a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. Ramana Maharshi says our knowledge and identity of what we are is false. He describes our deeper inner Self as ‘eternal,’ which arises and returns to the same source.
So essentially, they both say our experience of who we think we are, our experience of ourselves as separate individuals is incorrect and that we are part of everything.

Durée: environ 2 heures (02:25:31)
Date de publication: 21/07/2025; Unabridged; Copyright Year: — Copyright Statment: —