We choose every day: what to wear, what to do, with whom to spend time, etc. Despite the dissimilarity of these plots, it turns out that our torment comes down to a choice between an unknown future and an unchanging past.
Moreover, the first expands the possibilities of finding meaning, and the second limits them. This theory of the largest existential psychologist Salvatore Maddi was confirmed by Elena Mandrikova, a graduate student of the Department of General Psychology of Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov. She invited students to choose one of two classrooms, telling them what they would do in one, but not giving any information about what awaits them in the second. In fact, everyone had the same thing – to justify their choice and answer the questions of personality tests.
As a result, all students were divided into three groups: those whose choice of audience was random, those who consciously chose the known, and those who consciously chose the unknown. The latter, as it turned out, are very different from others: they rely more on themselves, their lives are more meaningful, they look at the world more optimistically and are more confident in their abilities to fulfill their plans.