Life's meaning and how it relates to the life matrix

I am currently a senior and psych major at JMU. Last year I took a class on thanatology which literally means, "the study of death and dying." While taking this class, we talked a lot about the meaning of life and how death shapes someone's view of the meaning of their life. We also studied meaning and how it plays such a huge role in many people's lives. I think that it is very important for a person to discover meaning in his or her life because it is a great feeling to realize and understand what your life means and how important it is within this world.

While I was learning about meaning and life in my psych class, my teacher introduced to me to the concept of the life matrix. The life matrix refers to the 4 different states of meaning-least healthy to healthiest- and the 5 effects they have on you and your body. For example, the lowest stage of meaning is meaninglessness. And if you look at the 5 effects (spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, & relational), you can see how meaninglessness in your life will affect you. For example, if you look at meaninglessness and how it related to the spiritual part of you, you will find despair. If you look at the emotional effect, you will find depression, etc... The matrix is basically 4 vertical columns with 4 states of meaning and 5 horizontal rows with 5 effects. The columns and rows join at different boxes that display different effects of meaning-depending on what part of the matrix you are looking at. Although this matrix sounds a little confusing, it is easy to understand once you look at it and understand the concept of it. I think that this matrix is a completely amazing guide to understanding how meaning can affect your life, and I think that it is important for people to learn about and understand, so I have decided to share it with you!

I wonder if anyone has heard of this matrix? It was created by Naylor, Willimon, & Naylor, 1994. I will try to find a picture to upload to make it much easier to picture the matrix, but right now I am coming up short and can't find a good picture! I will try to get one up soon though.

I also wanted to discuss a couple of books that I think are completely worth reading if you want to read about meaning in life and how people are able to either find it, or completely give up on a meaningful life. The first book that I would like to recommend is The Stranger by Albert Camus. When I first read this book, I thought it was one of the weirdest books ever, but after I started thinking about how it relates to life and the meaning of one's life, I realized what a great book it was (even though the main character is strange). The second book that I want to recommend is Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. This is one of my most favorite books in the world! It is a non-fictional work written about the holocaust. This book is amazing to read and to understand life's meaning and how important it can be to discover what your meaning and purpose truly is. I really recommend that you guys read these books!! And if any of you have, I would LOVE to hear some feedback from you about what you think of either book~