Positive psychology has given us powerful tools for understanding what helps life go well. But life also contains realities that cannot be reframed, optimized, or gratitude-journaled away: we will die, our choices exclude other possible lives, other people can never fully know us, and the universe does not hand us a personalized instruction manual.

This interactive session brings positive psychology into conversation with existential psychology to explore how people can create and experience meaning amid mortality, uncertainty, freedom, isolation, and change. Drawing on contemporary research on meaning in life, purpose, mortality awareness, and existential well-being, we will distinguish between the pursuit of happiness and the construction of a life that feels coherent, purposeful, and significant.

Rather than treating existential concerns as problems to eliminate, participants will consider how encounters with finitude and uncertainty can clarify values, deepen relationships, sharpen priorities, and motivate meaningful action. We will also examine the risks of common cultural prescriptions—such as “find your one true purpose,” maximize every moment, or eliminate discomfort—that can inadvertently make meaning feel like one more performance metric.

Participants will leave with a practical framework and reflective tools they can use personally and in coaching, education, organizations, or helping professions to support meaningful living without requiring certainty, perpetual positivity, or a five-step plan for conquering the abyss.