Seeking Deeper Meaning
Today, let's strive to find deeper, more profound meaning in our lives, bringing us closer to happiness and fulfillment.
We're facing the significant challenge of discovering meaning within the suffering that surrounds us. Many of us avoid personal transformation by numbing ourselves to the pain within and around us.
But today, we’re going to confront this head-on by exploring how we can find meaning in suffering, inspired by Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and esteemed psychiatrist.
Embracing Meaning in Suffering
Finding peace and purpose in a world filled with suffering and pain can feel overwhelming. It’s easy to lose hope or feel that finding joy amidst such hardship is impossible.
Yet, if Viktor Frankl could find meaning and peace within the horrors of a concentration camp, perhaps we can also open our minds and hearts to connect with suffering in a more meaningful and purposeful way.
Frankl encourages us to face our challenges with courage and to transform our struggles into opportunities for growth. This perspective helps us view suffering as a catalyst for personal development and resilience.
How to Find Happiness, According to a Concentration Camp Survivor
Viktor Frankl said: “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, to choose one’s own way.”
This principle is at the core of Spiritual Psychology.
It’s not the situations of our lives that create our reality, but rather how we relate to them. So much of life is beyond our control, but for the parts that truly are outside our circle of control, let’s learn to relate to suffering in a way that brings us greater purpose and peace.
Your Sacred Muscle Workout 💪 Finding Meaning and More in Suffering
We’re simply going to meditate: be mindful and contemplate, life’s big questions today.
That’s all 🤣
- Choose just one of these questions, and be silent, still and allow sacred space within you. You don’t need to figure anything out. Just ask the question, and then be curious. Ponder. Contemplate. Observe what takes place in your head and your heart.
- What gives YOU meaning?
- How is the unavoidable suffering in your life, trying to teach you?
- How can you relate to your unavoidable suffering, in a way that transforms it?
- How has an experience of suffering from your past, supported you in positive ways?
- What do you need to bring to your own suffering, to turn it into a positive source of meaning in your life?
Ellie is helping me find more meaning.
It has been so challenging taking care of a dog with such high needs, that I’ve been questioning everything. And while it’s been challenging, it’s also been incredibly beautiful and helped me more deeply connect to what matters to me.
Our challenges will bring us to our knees. They will help us find more of what matters, if we’ll stay open, vulnerable, and curious 🥹
We hope you’re finding more meaning and overcoming in your challenges.
We’re with you.
We love you! Dr. Zoë and Fenix and Ellie 🐶
