[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-42731-en":3,"doc-seo-42731-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},42731,13056703019662,"Evangeline","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/be000253a8e92610077?_k=1778726343310543188",9,"Religion & Spirituality","The Meaning of Your Life Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness","The text is the front matter and beginning of Arthur C. Brooks’s book exploring how to find purpose amid modern emptiness. It frames “unheimlich,” an uneasy sense that things are not right, and uses the author’s return to academia after years away to illustrate rising depression, anxiety, fear, and anger among students. The opening situates a broader cultural shift, then leads into a structured set of chapters on meaning, right-brain thinking, disrupting destructive loops, and answering fundamental life questions.","Portfolio / Penguin An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019  \n[penguinrandomhouse.com](penguinrandomhouse.com)  \nCopyright © 2026 by ACB Ideas, LLC.  \nPenguin Random House values and supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader. Please note that no part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems.  \nPORTFOLIO and PORTFOLIO with javelin thrower design are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC. This book adapts ideas and takes passages from essays first published in Arthur Brooks’s “How to Build a Life” column in The  \nAtlantic.  \nCover design: Brian Lemus  \nCover image: Daboost / Shutterstock  \nBook design by Jessica Shatan Heslin/Studio Shatan, Inc., adapted for ebook by Estelle Malmed Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data  \nNames: Brooks, Arthur C., 1964-author  \nTitle: The meaning of your life: finding purpose in an age of emptiness / Arthur C. Brooks.  \nDescription: New York, NY: Portfolio/Penguin, [2026] | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2025049404 (print) | LCCN 2025049405 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593545423 hardcover | ISBN 9780593545430  \nebook  \nSubjects: LCSH: Self-actualization (Psychology) | Goal (Psychology)  \nClassification: LCC BF637. S4 B794 2026 (print) | LCC BF637. S4 (ebook)  \nLC record available at [https://lccn.loc.gov/2025049404](https://lccn.loc.gov/2025049404)  \nLC ebook record available at [https://lccn.loc.gov/2025049405](https://lccn.loc.gov/2025049405)  \nEbook ISBN 9780593545430  \nInternational edition ISBN 9798217183586  \nThe authorized representative in the EU for product safety and compliance is Penguin Random House Ireland, Morrison Chambers, 32 Nassau Street, Dublin D02 YH68, Ireland, [https://eu-contact.penguin.ie](https://eu-contact.penguin.ie).  \nprhid_prh_7.4a_155617513_c0_r0  \nCONTENTS  \nDedication Introduction: Unheimlich  \n1. The Meaning of Meaning  \n2. The Right Side of Your Brain  \n3. Interrupt the Doom Loop  \n4. Three Big Questions You Must Ask  \n5. Give Your Heart Away  \n6. Transcend Yourself  \n7. Look for Your Calling  \n8. Surround Yourself with Beauty  \n9. Don’t Waste Your Suffering  \nConclusion: Your New, Old-Fashioned Life  \nAcknowledgments  \nNotes  \nIndex  \nAbout the Author  \nFrom Quixote to Dulcinea, who still beguiles my soul  \nINTRODUCTION  \nUnheimlich  \nIn the fall of 2019, I felt very unheimlich.  \nThat’s a German word that’s hard to translate precisely. It means the gut feeling of uneasiness you get when things just…aren’t right at home. Like if you walk into your childhood house after being away at college and sense that something is very wrong. Maybe it smells off, or your parents are acting weird, like they have bad news to tell you. A feeling of dread is triggered, but you can’t quite put your finger on what exactly is up. You just feel, well, unheimlich.  \nI had just returned home after a decade away. Not home as in my hometown, which happens to be Seattle, which I left unsentimentally fortyfour years ago. For me,“home” means campus, because that’s where I find my people. I was born to be a college professor and, in fact, have been on campuses since I was a baby: My dad was a professor. His dad, too. For me, academia is the family business, and mine as well since I took my first professorship nearly thirty years ago. The research is interesting and rewarding, but even more, the students are my people—ambitious strivers just starting out on what promise to be terrific careers and lives. They give me energy because they always are so inspired by","cbCaikkp8PVBIRzA","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaikkp8PVBIRzA","pdf",4070402,3,1,278,"English","en",105,"# Dedication\n# Introduction: Unheimlich\n# The Meaning of Meaning\n# The Right Side of Your Brain\n# Interrupt the Doom Loop\n# Three Big Questions You Must Ask\n# Give Your Heart Away\n# Transcend Yourself\n# Look for Your Calling\n# Surround Yourself with Beauty\n# Don’t Waste Your Suffering\n# Conclusion: Your New, Old-Fashioned Life","[{\"question\":\"What does “unheimlich” mean in the book’s introduction?\",\"answer\":\"“Unheimlich” refers to a deep gut-level uneasiness that something is not right at home, even if the cause is hard to identify.\"},{\"question\":\"What changes did the author observe after returning to academia in 2019?\",\"answer\":\"The atmosphere darkened as more students experienced depression and anxiety; office hours felt like counseling, and fear about offending ideas affected both students and faculty.\"},{\"question\":\"How did the COVID-19 lockdowns affect students according to the text?\",\"answer\":\"Lockdowns shuttered campuses and increased students’ isolation, leaving many to live by Zoom, social media, and YouTube, while depression, anxiety, loneliness, fear, and anger persisted or worsened.\"}]",1783358912,701,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"the-meaning-of-your-life-finding-purpose-in-an-age-of-emptiness","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,50],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/religion-spirituality/",{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-meaning-of-your-life-finding-purpose-in-an-age-of-emptiness/42731/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-15","2026-07-06",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"What does “unheimlich” mean in the book’s introduction?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"“Unheimlich” refers to a deep gut-level uneasiness that something is not right at home, even if the cause is hard to identify.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"What changes did the author observe after returning to academia in 2019?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"The atmosphere darkened as more students experienced depression and anxiety; 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