Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Quarter Life Crisis

A few jovial chats with friends (and confidants) over the past year has left us with the term 'quarter-life-crisis'(Nedism). It's sort of a joke - mostly.
Recent intense chats with friends makes me realise that this is a very real phenomonen.
We are experiencing that plateau that is often the stimulis for intense dissatisfaction with the status-quo ... of our own lives.
What our parents previously experienced at a later age, we find ourselves experiencing sometime in the late twenties(Laherism). This is defined as 'desolation of the late twenties' (Nedism).
Seriously though. We (middle-class professionals) generally have our immediate physical needs (as Maslow defines them) taken care of at an earlier age. We enter careers at a higher salary than previous generations, leaving us with more disposable income and disposable time. More time to self-actualise ... to a point of realisation and dissatisfaction.

I wiki-pedia-ed (as this is not an academic article)'mid-life crisis' and some interesting points came up:
Theoretical basis:
"Although midlife crisis has lately received more attention in popular culture than serious research, there are some theoretical constructs supporting the notion. Jungian theory holds that midlife is key to individuation, a process of self-actualization and self-awareness that contains many potential paradoxes. Although Carl Jung did not describe midlife crisis per se, the midlife integration of thinking, sensation, feeling, and intuition that he describes could, it seems, lead to confusion about one's life to date and one's goals. Later, Erik Erikson held that in life's seventh stage, middle adulthood, people struggle to find new meaning and purpose to their lives; their questioning, he believed, could lead to what we now call a midlife crisis."

"Individuals experiencing a midlife crisis have some of these feelings:
search of an undefined dream or goal
a deep sense of remorse for goals not accomplished
desire to achieve a feeling of youthfulness
need to spend more time alone or with certain peers"

'A search of an undefined dream or goal' was a point that stood out. Many people that I speak to articulate this sense.

A one-one-one with a good friend this evening hilighted the concept of a discrepency.
We theorised that while we consider ourselves spiritually aware beings who have an apparent 'balance', perhaps we are too grounded in a materialistic existence. Our souls and mind realise a higher purpose or another way, but we are 'stuck' and our souls 'want out'.Perhaps... it's a theory.

So then onto the next level - does the 'intensely spiritual path' hold the answer. Do the roads to all existential crises lead to Sufism ?
Thoughts...in progress...

3 comments:

Shak said...

X-life crisis are just another name for when people realise that all they've been taught about happiness and contentment is a lie. Shame it takes so much to get them there...

ayesha said...

oh great shak (i mean sheikh) :) wherein lies the answer. What then do we strive for/towards. What frames your doctrine of happiness/contentment?

Shak said...

It's not my doctrine - it's that from our religion and good old fashion values (which in my opinion coincide quite a bit).

To be specific: health, family, morals, routine practice. The simple things. Nail those and you'll be fine.

The real irony is that you don't have to "strive" or struggle for any of them. That so many people think they do is precisely why they're so disappointed when things don't pay off. That's the lie.