Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist and writer, was interned during World War II at Auschwitz, Dachau and other concentration camps, this experience and training allowed him to make a great reflection on the meaning of life he incorporated into several books, including “Man in Search of Sense”.
He founded logotherapy and existential analysis. The term derives from the “logos”, created by Heráclito de Ephesus in the 6th century BC. C. Viktor Frankl uses it as “sense”, that is, logotherapy is the therapy that focuses on the discovery of the meaning of life for each. Person. It is a therapy that is used for people who suffer existential problems, face a major change or due to a personal crisis.
- We all go through life situations that make us suffer and we don’t know how to deal with them.
- But there is no formula that always works.
- So we have to accept that suffering is part of life.
The lessons of a person who has spent three years in a concentration camp and who has overcome everything must be considered to make us see life from a different perspective, and motivate us in everyday life. Here are some of the lessons Viktor Frankl taught us:
The difference between a person who knows how to overcome their problems and adversities in life and a person who cannot overcome them is that the former is a person who decides, who chooses to be one or the other, despite the conditions in which they live.
Dr. Frankl talks about this sense of despair as a mathematical operation. Despair is like purposeless suffering. If a person finds no meaning in his suffering, he will tend to despair, but if the person is able to make sense of adversity, he can turn his tragedies into a feat, a way to overcome it.
It is a question that we must ask ourselves every day to know who we are and who we want to be, to become the best version of ourselves, to show how extraordinary there is in each one and that others can see and appreciate.
We all have a why or who to live for, a reason that moves us forward every day, motivates us and gives meaning to every second of our existence, every step we take or every action we take. changed is up to us.
If we are powerless to change a situation, we can always choose our attitude to that situation, that is, there is always something in us that we can change: what we feel, there is always a part of us that depends on us. .
It doesn’t matter that we don’t expect anything from life, but life expects something from us. Think about what you bring to life, what life expects of you, because our life constantly challenges us.
What we need to ask ourselves is what we can do to change our lives, what we bring into the world and react accordingly.
There are bad things in our lives and we have to accept that fact, we don’t need to live without adversity, but knowing that they will exist, that they are part of life, and that we must fight for something worthwhile, so that it makes sense. of our existence.
When one accepts that it is impossible to replace a person, one manifests the responsibility that man assumes for his existence, a man who realizes that a person is waiting for him or that he has an unfinished job assumes his responsibility and knows why, the meaning of his life.
Man is not interested in finding pleasure or avoiding pain, but finding the meaning of life. Even in times of suffering, we must make sense of this suffering.
No one can put themselves in your place and suffer for you, so your only chance is the attitude you take to suffering, we all have a purpose, but sometimes we are not aware of that motive.