Meaning Through Being: Reclaiming the Wholeness of Personal Meaning

This qualitative study explores personal meaning through the narratives of 12 participants. One foundational theme, meaning experienced through accomplishments versus meaning experienced through existence (meaning through being), is discussed. Results suggest that a counselor can help a client develop a more integrated sense of meaning by paying attention to both types of meaning. ********** In recent literature, meaning seems to be mostly researched through quantitative measures that focus largely on the experience of achievement and goal setting (Schulenberg & Melton, 2010). Meaning, in its origin, is seen as a bioevolutionary insatiable drive that is a core motivator for all human behavior (Emmons, 2003), and, as of yet, empirical models have failed to capture its fullness (Schulenberg & Melton, 2010; Zeitchik, 2001). This article presents a narrative inquiry into the topic of meaning to help counselors more fully understand how personal meaning may impact the well-being of their clients. The main research question is "How can counselors honor the fullness of meaning in their clients' stories and what benefit is there in doing so?" RESEARCHING MEANING IN NARRATIVES Viktor Frankl (1962) popularized the concept of meaning in psychology literature when he coined the term will to meaning. More recently, Wong (2010) focused on the meaning gained from facing painful life experiences as an intervention tool in therapy. In the counseling relationship, the importance and effect of meaning can be limited if one focuses solely on the meaning that is experienced through goal pursuit and achievement, referred to in this article as meaning through doing. By understanding meaning beyond achievement, a counselor may be more effective in helping clients piece together a sustainable sense of meaning, no matter what the circumstances. If meaning is thought of only in terms of what an individual externally aims for, it can be assumed that if the object is lost, then the person has lost meaning. This might be seen in a client losing a job or significant relationship. For the aforementioned meaning researchers, meaning is an experience which is ever present and readily available to anyone. Meaning is thought of as a primordial pool that the individual can access at any time. It can never be taken away and can never be depleted. This aspect of meaning is wrapped up in the existential being of each person, thus the term meaning through being will be used for this type of meaning. According to the French existential philosopher Sartre (1956), being is the stage on which all identity and experience takes place. His concept of being is similar to Frankl's (1962) "will to meaning" as they are both core to the human experience, ever present, and are platforms from which identity is shaped. Being can be seen as primary to both existence and meaning, because one must exist in some way in order to have meaning. May and Yalom (2000) wrote that the experience of being can be understood as knowing that the individual exists in the world, which they termed the I-AM experience. Finding meaning within oneself (i.e., through one's character) is a pathway to being affirmation (Maslow, 1968). Thus, individuals can point to a sense of meaning that arises out of the awareness and experience of being, and it is from this foundation that meaning through being was conceptualized by the current author. Bauer and Bonanno (2001) conducted a narrative-based study that explored the distinction of being and doing as it relates to coping with grief. In analyzing self-evaluation statements, the authors looked at level of context. A statement can have two levels of context, either a doing-based level of context (I graduated college), or a being-based level of context (I am a successful person). This doing/being distinction appeared in the work of Janoff-Bulman (1992), which used the terms behavioral (doing) and characterological (being) to describe a distinction in the recovery of participants from trauma. …