An existential crisis is not something most people seek deliberately, but it is a profound experience that many encounter at least once in their lives. It is a confrontation with the deepest questions of existence: Who am I? Why am I here? Does anything matter? While often uncomfortable, an existential crisis can be a gateway to deeper self-understanding, authenticity, and personal transformation.

To understand how to have an existential crisis, it is important to recognize that it begins not with external events, but with inner questioning. It arises when familiar structures of meaning collapse or are called into doubt. It is not the crisis itself that harms; it is the refusal to face it honestly that leads to confusion and despair.

1. Begin by Questioning Assumptions

The first step toward an existential crisis is to begin questioning the basic assumptions you live by. Why do you pursue the goals you pursue? Why do you value what you value? Many of these beliefs have been inherited from society, family, or culture without critical examination. Start asking whether they are truly your own. The deeper you question, the more unstable the familiar world may feel.

2. Reflect on Mortality

Another common trigger for an existential crisis is the confrontation with mortality. Meditate on the fact that life is finite. Consider that all achievements, possessions, and experiences will eventually vanish. This reflection forces the mind to grapple with the temporary nature of existence and to seek meaning beyond temporary accomplishments.

3. Disrupt Routine

Routine masks deep existential questions by offering the comfort of repetition. Interrupting that routine — whether by travel, change of job, or stepping back from constant busyness — leaves space for the mind to wonder what lies beneath the surface. When the noise of daily life fades, questions of purpose and meaning can no longer be ignored.

4. Encounter Disillusionment

Experiencing disillusionment often leads directly into an existential crisis. When a long-held dream fails, when a trusted institution reveals corruption, or when a relationship ends, the mind is forced to confront the fragility of meaning. Instead of rushing to fill the void with new distractions, allow the emptiness to sit. It is in this emptiness that true existential questioning can arise.

5. Allow Doubt to Expand

In an existential crisis, certainty dissolves. Answers that once seemed sufficient no longer satisfy. Let doubt grow rather than rushing to resolve it. Question not only your beliefs but the frameworks of belief itself. Question the meaning of success, happiness, morality, and truth. This widening doubt is uncomfortable but necessary to strip away illusions.

6. Face Isolation

Existential questioning often leads to a profound sense of isolation. In realizing that no one else can answer life’s ultimate questions for you, you may feel alone. This is a pivotal moment. Isolation is not a punishment; it is the recognition that each person must encounter existence directly, without sheltering behind borrowed answers.

7. Resist Immediate Solutions

Many people seek to escape an existential crisis by quickly adopting new ideologies, identities, or distractions. True existential exploration requires resisting this urge. It means standing in the unknown, tolerating uncertainty, and allowing the crisis to do its work. Only by doing so can you move from inherited meaning to a meaning you forge for yourself.

Conclusion

Having an existential crisis is not about falling apart; it is about falling through layers of assumption, illusion, and superficial meaning. It is a painful but essential rite of passage for those who seek to live consciously rather than by default. An existential crisis strips life down to its raw essentials, forcing you to confront freedom, responsibility, and mortality.

Though it may feel like a breakdown, it is in fact the beginning of a breakthrough. What emerges on the other side is not the comfort of certainty, but the strength of authenticity. It is not the restoration of old beliefs, but the creation of a life lived in honest relationship with the vast and mysterious fact of existence itself.