The past gets a bad rap. We’re told to “let go of the past” and “not to live in the past.” Common wisdom roots us in the presence. We’re to live “one day at a time” and “be in the moment.” A recent study, however, suggests that thinking about the past, as well of the future, can give you a more meaningful life.
Generally speaking, having a sense of meaning about life entails understanding why things happen. Life needs to make sense to us. (What is meaning?) As such, part of creating meaning is…integrating our lives across time. Our past and future needs to fit into a larger narrative. A life experienced randomly isn’t a meaningful life.
In a wonderful article, Baumeister et al. (2013) contrast a happy life and a meaningful life, and using survey data, they find that what we’re thinking about makes a difference. The survey asked people if they were thinking about the past, the present, or the future. The people who were thinking about the past, especially, but also the future reported being less happy at that moment. Okay, score one for conventional wisdom. But, the people thinking about the past and the future reported higher feelings of meaning. Especially important was imagining what the future can look like. The authors summarize:
Meaningfulness may therefore often involve understanding one’s life beyond the here and now, integrating future and past. In contrast, happiness, as a subjective feeling state, exists essentially in the present moment.
What does this mean for you?
1. Interpret the past. Thinking about the past, of course, can be overdone to the point of dwelling in it. Nonetheless, it is helpful to think about the past and try to understand why things happened and how they relate to our present and future life. A useful approach is to think about the good things that have resulted from past hardships. (For a useful example).
2. Be clear on the future. The problem with the future is that so much of it hasn’t happened yet. Still, there’s value in thinking about it consciously and intentionally. Where are you headed? What do you want to have happen? What could happen? These questions touch upon the realm of goal-setting, and, in fact, some scholars define meaning as inherently involving the pursuit of meaningful goals. It’s easy to think of setting goals as simply a way to get something. Certainly aiming to accomplish something will get us there faster than not doing so, but in addition goal-setting in and of itself can give us a sense of meaning. Meaning, in turn, is linked to lots of good things, including living longer. So, set goals… it’s good for you!
3. Integrate the present. Being aware of the present moment is a happy place to be, in part, because it keeps our head out of the past and the future. Unfortunately, those are places where we can find meaning. This suggests that part of what should do when we think about our current lives is to connect it to our past and future. Meaning involves integration, and we can do that in the here and now.
4. What not to do. We can better understand what to do when we can envision what not to do. Here it’s pretty clear. A thoughtless, unaware engagement of the present. The image here is of someone watching TV or playing a video game or otherwise not really paying attention as we bump down life’s road.
5. It’s not always easy or fun. Overall research findings that meaning and happiness are positively correlated, so if you have more of one, you probably have more of the other. Good. Still, sometimes the activities that we need to do to experience meaning temporarily diminish our feelings of happiness. Creating meaning can be difficult work, but it’s a price perhaps worth paying.
Question: What effects does thinking about the past and the future have on you?
Photo credit. Tequila Sunset by Rowena
