1. Meaningful Experiences
Loneliness/Isolation

3. What do you think Robin Williams meant by this statement?
Discuss:
meant by this statement?

4. Loneliness/Isolation
There are times in everyone’s life when we feel lonely or isolated. It can be for straightforward reasons, like being away from home or having problems with friends and family.
You can also feel emotionally cut off from those around you, or feeling alone because of what’s going on in your head that you’re not sharing with your friends or family.

5. Times you can experience loneliness
Having low self-esteem can make us feel lonely, because we feel we’re not as good as others.
After a relationship break-up it can be difficult to adjust to life as a single person again. Spending more time on your own can feel isolating.
When you’re young, loneliness can be a big problem as it’s not always easy to find a group of people you connect with or places to hang out.
This can be especially true in rural or isolated communities where it might seem hard to find people who share your interests.
No matter where you live, you can feel cut off from people at school or at home.

6. What do you think Mark Twain meant by this statement?
Discuss:
meant by this statement?

7. Common causes of Loneliness
Having a hard time with bullying or intimidation at school, college or work
Finding it hard to talk to others because of shyness or social anxiety
Living away from home for the first time
Friends moving away for work or college
Growing apart from people you’ve grown up with
Unemployment is a really big cause of loneliness and isolation as it means you’re at home all day without the opportunity to make new friends and keep busy. You can also feel like you don’t have much news when you meet your friends, or feel like you don’t want to see people
Certain stressful events or worries can be a cause of loneliness, if you feel like you’re the only person going though something or your life is different to people around you.

8. Loneliness/Isolation
The experience of loneliness raises difficult questions:
Why am I not accepted?
Why do I not belong?

9. Loneliness/Isolation
Consider this dilemma: in an imaginary horrible world, which would you least prefer of the following?
You go into school and get in trouble in every class and spend the best part of the afternoon in the principal’s office.
You go into school and all your friends ignore you for the whole day.

10. Why does friendship and the company of others make life meaningful?
Discuss:
Why does friendship and the company of
others make life meaningful?

11. Coping with Loneliness
Tips:
Get busy
Know you are not alone
Boost your self-esteem
Explore your interests
Enjoy your own company
Try not to worry
Mind Yourself:
Take what you see online with a pinch of salt
Think it through before you join any groups or clubs
Don’t become too dependent
Build trust gradually

15. Meaningful Experiences
Popularity/Approval

17. Social Media
‘Likes’
‘Dislikes’
‘Friends’
‘Followers’

18. Do you consider yourself addicted to social media?

19. Could you go 24 hours with no social media contact?

20. Are virtual ‘Likes’ important to you?

21. Do you equate social media interaction with popularity/approval?

22. Look Up

23. Do people get meaning out of being popular
Do people get meaning out of being popular? Do you think that popularity should be the basis of a meaningful life? Why/why not?

24. Popularity/Approval
Sometimes to be popular we can create an outward appearance that gets us accepted.
Yet hidden behind this appearance is the reality of who we really are.

25. Why do we tend to hide the ‘real’ person
Why do we tend to hide the ‘real’ person? Do you think our society places a lot of emphasis on outward appearance? Are looks important to you?

26. I don’t want everyone to like me.
I want to like myself.

28. Meaningful Experiences
Failure/Success

29. Failure/Success
Life can appear meaningless when it seems that we have been given no talents or that the talents we have aren’t very useful.
The school system seems to reward those who are intellectually capable.
Why are there no rewards for being responsible, good or caring?
If I continually fail to meet other people’s standards, does that mean that my life has little meaning? Has life in some way betrayed me?
Why I Hate School But Love Education

30. Watch these video clips about failure and success.
Write down your favorite quotes/
messages from the clips.

31. What message do you think
Mother Teresa was
trying to convey here?

32. Pick your favorite line from this famous Nelson Mandela speech.

33. Meaningful Experiences
Death

34. Death
Story has it that when Pope John XXIII was dying, he said “My bags are packed, and I am waiting for her”.
There is a sense in his words of fulfilment and promise, of expectation and anticipation.

35. Death
Contrast his sentiments with the wake-room and tragic graveside scenes of anger and incomprehensibility which many of us witness.
In the latter death can be perceived as that which makes all of living and loving absurd.
Why invest so much energy and intimacy in life when it can be wrenched away so easily, so futilely or with no word of warning?
Life may be perceived as a venture bereft of meaning, lacking in value and worth.

36. Why do some people think that death makes life seem meaningless
Why do some people think that death makes life seem meaningless? Is it pointless to invest so much into a life for it all just to end?

37. Contrast the emotions in these two songs about losing a loved one.
Death
Contrast the emotions in these
two songs about losing a loved one.

38. What meaning could be found in death
What meaning could be found in death? In what way can the Christian belief in an afterlife make death seem less meaningless?