Phase 1: Lost in the Woods

This is the starting point.

It's where we become aware of "The Problem."

"Life makes no sense."

"Angst" might be another way to describe it, or "meaninglessness," or just a general sense that "something is deeply wrong here, in the big sense, but it isn't clear what," and so on.

Having this sense isn't a sign that "something is wrong." Just the opposite.

It might very well mean you're on to something.

This kind of inquiry has a long and incredibly rich heritage. Shakespeare's Hamlet. Goethe's Faust. Tolstoy's Confession. Dante begins his Divine Comedy as literally lost in the woods. Moby Dick. Ecclesiastes. The Bhagavad Gita. Groundhog Day. And so on.

All of these either begin with the basic premise of being "lost in the woods," metaphorically or literally.

"It is only when we realize
that life is taking us nowhere
that it begins to have meaning."
- P. D. Ouspensky

If life makes no sense, or seems pointless, or is just miserable, the challenge we face is to seek out some legitimate remedy to this situation.

To get where we're going, we start from where we are - even if "where we are" is something like "confused."

Objective: To see and understand our current situation more clearly.

Articles

Start with these - a clarification of "The Problem":

Our Current State of Psychological Health, at a Glance
Our Current State of Physical Health: 27 Insights
Why Life is Utter Hell
The Meaning of Life: 10 Popular Answers (That Don’t Really Work)
10 Popular Models of Psychological Health (That Don’t Really Work)

Then, for a deeper dive: