Turn Your Challenges into Growth

I have been reading this wonderful book ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ from Viktor Frankl several times now, and there are some insights that I would like to share.

Viktor Frankl is an Austrian psychiatrist and in this book he shares his stay in several concentration camps during the second World War. His view is unique because of his education, he was particularly interested on the effect of these extreme circumstances on the human being.

I’ll share one of the many revealing excerpts that really struck me:

“Some details of a particular’s man greatness may have come to one’s mind, like the story of the young woman whose death I witnessed in a concentration camp. It is a simple story. There is little to tell and it may sound as if I had invented it, but to me it seems like a poem.

This young woman knew that she would die in the next few days. But when I talked to her she was cheerful in spite of this knowledge. ‘I am grateful that fate has hit me so hard,’ she told me. ‘In my former life I was spoiled and did not take spiritual accomplishments seriously.’ Pointing through the window of the hut, she said, ‘This tree here is the only friend I have in my loneliness.’ Through that window she could see just one branch of a chestnut tree and on the branch were two blossoms. ‘I often talk to that tree,’ she said to me. I was startled and didn’t know how to take her words. Was she delirious? Did she have occasional hallucinations? Anxiously I asked her if the tree replied. ‘Yes.’ What did it say to her? She answered, ‘It said to me: I am here – I am here – I am life, eternal life.’

What struck me most was that in any circumstance, we have the choice, the choice to give meaning to each event, how desperate the situation might be we are in.

Each situation in our life gives us the opportunity to complain, to whine about our situation, to look at it from the small perspective of our personal survival, from the perspective of fear.

Yet, at the same time, each situation in our life gives us the same opportunity to rise about our little self, to become larger than life, and especially crisis and deep suffering give us this precious opportunity to dedicate our life to something bigger than our mere survival, than the small self-centered needs of everyday.

In this growth lies such richness, such depth, warmth, understanding of the human condition, and above a connection to this infinite flow of unconditional love.

To be able to choose love over fear, is one of the most wonderful gifts. And in choosing love, we will feel loved and supported, we open our heart and become grateful no matter what the external circumstances may be.

I am writing these findings with love, grateful that you took the time to read it. I’m reaching out to you, letting you know that in whatever situation you’re in, I am here, I feel your joy, I feel your pain, and know that it is not permanent, it will pass…