As a Primary Care Doctor, I see a clear trend in my consulting room, and many colleagues recognize it. People who are medically “fine”. Good test results. No clear diagnosis. And yet tired, empty, tense or directionless. Quite often there is no medical problem underneath, but a question of meaning that is never explicitly asked.
And it is not only primary care doctors who see this. Internists, oncologists, elderly care physicians, psychologists and occupational physicians also encounter it every day. When meaning is missing, the body can translate that into symptoms.
Meaning is therefore not a luxury topic. It is clinically relevant.
That is why I often give patients, and fellow healthcare professionals, practical reflection lists to take with them. Not therapy, but guiding questions that encourage autonomy and self-inquiry. You can use them in any treatment relationship.
📍 Signs that a patient may be ‘meaning fatigued’
✓ Persistent fatigue without a clear cause
✓ Reduced motivation despite stable health
✓ An “is this it?” feeling or a loss of direction
✓ Less experience of enjoyment or engagement
✓ Living mainly out of duty or the expectations of others
✓ Overstimulation or low resilience without a clear medical explanation
📍 Sources of meaning you can explore
• Connection with significant others
• Feeling that you matter or contribute
• Work or activities that fit your identity
• Personal growth or development
• Silence, nature, spirituality or creativity
• Feeling that life has direction or coherence
📍 Practical reflection checklist for patients
✔ Energy diary, what gives energy and what costs energy?
✔ Plan moments of meaning, consciously make time for what nourishes you
✔ Questions of value, what makes me happy, what am I missing, what do I want more of?
✔ Practice boundaries, stop doing what structurally drains you
✔ Strengthen connection, with people, nature or creativity
✔ Existential reflection, what do I actually want to be healthy for?
You do not need to coach, treat or give answers with this.
An inviting question is often enough. When patients reconnect with what is meaningful, we regularly see more resilience, better perseverance with a healthy lifestyle and less dependence on care.
Discussing meaning is therefore not “extra”. It is good medicine.
It is from this approach, health as an interplay of body, psyche and soul, that I work as a coach and also write in my book Doctor’s Orders: Partner with Your Soul. And about the self-healing capacity that is connected to reconnecting, again and again, and becoming one with your inner soulfulness.