MIND-SET OCTOBER 2023

I posted a video on YouTube about the power of the mind and how your state of mind can help you through even the most difficult situations… and someone responded saying “that is not true, what about the Jewish people subjected to the Nazi concentrations camps?”

I responded saying there are many life stories, even from people that survived the horrors of the concentration camps, that tell how their state of mind helped them through the extremely challenging time.

Not long afterwards I was inspired to read the book, Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl, a psychiatrist, who spent 3 years in concentration camps. He lost his father, mother, brother, and wife, while experiencing and witnessing torture and death daily. After his release, he founded Logotherapy, a part of existential and humanistic psychology theories. This quote from Frankl summarizes the state of mind that helped get him through -- “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances.”

One of my favorite examples of the power of mind-set in the book Man’s Search for Meaning, is about a 17-year-old boy who became a quadriplegic from a diving accident. Three years after his accident, he studied psychology in community college, using a mouth stick to type. This is a letter the boy wrote to Viktor E Frankl: “I view my life as being abundant with meaning and purpose. The attitude that I adopted on that fateful day has become my personal credo for life: I broke my neck, it didn’t break me. I am currently enrolled in my first psychology course in college. I believe that my handicap will only enhance my ability to help others. I know that without suffering, the growth that I have achieved would be impossible.”

Your experience in life is all up to your attitude towards it.

“It doesn’t matter about what we expect from life, but what life expects from us.” -- Viktor E Frankl

THANK YOU FOR BEING YOU