The meaning of life from the pathway of mindfulness and responsible action: A phenomenological study with Iranian university students

The sense of meaning in life is an experience that is considered desirable by the anxious human being of today’s society. This has been noted by researchers in the field of mental health due to the effect that having meaning has on people’s satisfaction and welfare. The present study aims to study the phenomenological methods and styles in people’s lives that lead to the experience of meaning. The present study was a qualitative research using latent thematic analysis method. The research performed semi-structural interviews in 5 focus groups with 33 participants and investigated college Student experiences about meaning in life and methods to achieve them. The six phase strategy of Brown and Clark (2006) was used to extract themes. After analyzing the results, one main theme, two themes and three subthemes was extracted. The main theme is “meaning worktool”, the themes are: “mindfulness” and “responsible action”, and the subthemes are: “agency attitude”, “action”, and “continuity”. The results of this study will be able to help make the experience of meaning accessible to individuals, both in the form of education and treatment that can be cited by experts.