When I can be in the world, when I like life, and when I also manage to find myself within it, the conditions are in place for the final question. It is not enough to be in the world and to have found oneself. Our presence here is also meant for us to go beyond ourselves, so that we do not remain trapped only in our own needs, wishes and goals. Längle uses an image that makes this clear. If we stay shut up in what is ours, it would be like living in a house that nobody ever c

Suppose there is someone you find unbearable, and you cannot quite explain why. Others seem to get along with them without any trouble, yet they trigger emotional reactions in you that feel disproportionate every time they appear. Conversely, there might be someone you admire excessively, to a degree that does not match what you actually know about them. One person rubs you the wrong way without any clear reason, while the other appeals to you far too much, also without any c

Most people who walk the path of self-fulfilment or self-actualisation eventually run into a crossroads, according to Wilber. One road, based on Western psychology, tells them to work on themselves, to mature, to develop up to a point where they can embrace who they truly are. The other, based mostly on Eastern spiritual practices, tells them to wake up, to transcend who they might think they are psychologically and to connect with who they truly are beyond the psyche. These

Someone who has their living space (the first fundamental motivation) and finds value in their life (the second fundamental motivation) can already live, in a certain sense, and what they have is good and solid. If we picture it as building a house, the shell is finished, the services are in, the water, the heating, the furniture. But something is missing. What is missing is the individual stamp, one's own style. A full life is not served by having just any bed, any wardrobe

In 1927 Martin Heidegger published Being and Time, a difficult book that nonetheless describes that sort of experience with astonishing precision. His aim was not specifically psychological, since he did not want to explain how the mind works or catalogue disorders, but to describe the structures that make it possible for there to be a world for us at all. And that has an important and liberating consequence, because what he describes are not the pathologies of some people, b

There is a very common way of experiencing one's own life, in which life is lived as a permanent tension between what I want and what I must do. On one side are my desires, my plans, the things I would do if nothing tied me down. On the other, the endless list of obligations such as work, the children, ageing parents, the bills, the commitments I took on almost without noticing. Under that logic, freedom is always somewhere else, always later, always once I have finally freed

Being able to be here is not enough. The first fundamental motivation gave us the body for living and a protected space, but the pulse is still missing, the warmth, that which makes existence habitable. Being merely able to be there would be, says Alfried Längle, a life as if in barracks: in barracks survival is possible, but it is not beautiful. This is why existence sets us a second theme: we want more than simply to be in the world. We want our life to be good. We look for

Plato We live surrounded by two messages that seem to pull in opposite directions. On one side, a culture of instant gratification tells us to seize the moment, chase sensation, and put whatever feels good right now above everything else. On the other, a culture of productivity and self control tells us to think things through, plan ahead, be rational, and postpone gratification in the name of bigger goals. Most of us end up swinging between these two poles without ever findi

Life often moves quickly. We rush from one task to another, rarely pausing to check in with ourselves. Yet, slowing down and tuning into how we feel through our bodies can reveal much about our inner world. Existential analysis, a philosophical and therapeutic approach, invites us to explore this connection deeply. It encourages us to find meaning by understanding our existence, starting with the most basic motivation. What Is Existential Analysis and the First Foundational M

Before we ask ourselves whether we enjoy life, whether we can be ourselves, or what we are here for, there is a more basic and quieter question that holds up all the others: can I be here? It is the first of the four fundamental motivations of Existential Analysis, and it concerns our relationship with the world. Its guiding question, as Alfried Längle formulates it, is at once simple and unsettling: I am here, but can I be? Can I, under the concrete conditions of my life, tr

People today, especially those of a more scientific bent, often pull back or grow suspicious the moment they hear the word spirituality. This does not happen without good reason. There is a widespread assumption that you have to belong to some group or follow an organisation or a leader, and there is no shortage of supposed spiritual guides who abuse or have abused their position betraying the very message they claim to promote. At the same time, there is often also a dogmati

There is a phenomenon, existentially rather complex, that presents itself as a puzzling paradox. It is the failure of the successful person, of someone who reaches what they worked towards for years and, on reaching it, does not find the fulfilment they had assumed would come with it. The position, the recognition, the security, everything is in place, and yet the sense persists that something essential has not been touched by any of those achievements. The usual response is

Life as a constant chase after goals and targets dominates the way we live today. Life as the famous rat race that never ends, from school to the next project at work, always laboring for the sake of something more that is still to come. We tell ourselves that once we land the job, once we sort out our finances, once the partner or the house or the recognition arrives, then, yes, then we will finally be happy. And so we go, from goal to goal, staking our happiness on what is

Almost all of us have found ourselves at one in the morning, scrolling aimlessly through our phones. No one is forcing us. In theory, you can stop whenever you want—or can you? If someone asked you, right then, whether you were scrolling freely, you'd say yes. After all, you're doing exactly what you want. And yet that dazed, almost anaesthetised state often leaves us with an uneasy feeling, as if we weren't truly free in that moment. We're doing precisely what we desire, but

Why do some days feel meaningful and others empty? Existential Analysis traces it to four fundamental motivations, four questions life keeps asking us, and this practical guide shows what they are and how to begin answering them.