One of my favorite books is “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl. Dr. Frankl was a psychiatrist who was sent to concentration camps during WW-II’s Holocaust and his food contained of hot water with a floating dead fish head for flavor along with experiencing many other forms of abuse.
He realized that in a place that only a few could survive; the key to survival was not food nor strength in order to stand the abuse. It was the gift of finding meaning in our daily lives and finding beauty in everything, even in the dead fish head, without hate of the capturers and having hope to be thankful.
Dr. Frankl revolutionized the previous theories of human behavior that was established by Nietzche and Freud as being the “The Will to Power” and “The Will to Pleasure”. Nietzche‘s concept basically had previously defined the human being’s purpose and motivation in life to be: success, accomplishments, goals, power and reaching the highest position in life. Freud’s concept was seeking pleasure and avoiding pain that drove us to have hopes to be alive and have the will to live.
Frankl realized that the other two concepts may have been important, but at their roots they were empty and false since they will never truly satisfy our real nature, our real fulfillment comes from love and any lack of love is fear oriented which will cause us to pursue the other two concepts in search of a mirage of happiness.
Frankl, as being the father of Logotherapy, introduced the new principals that our main motivation to live is not power nor pleasure but is to find meaning in life. This included “meaning” under all circumstances, even the most miserable ones. Basically, he discovered that there are a lot of pleasure, power, success and a sense of accomplishments that are created when we find meaning in our life, but approaching it from the other direction alone will give us false meanings leading to unhappiness that will never be satisfying.
Leo Tolstoy in his beautiful story of the “Death of Ivan Ilyich”, tells the story of a successful judge in Moscow who had everything but hated many along with his own family members, and as he became sick, his view of life changed and with his last breath he told his wife, “What if everything that I have always believed was wrong?”. It is unimaginable to live 100 years with uncertainty, that all we have believed in has been wrong.
“We have freedom to find meaning in what we do and what we experience, or at least in the stand we take when faced with a situation of unchangeable suffering” (Logotherapy)
They say one of the most unique things about Mother Teresa was that when she was walking in the villages full of filth, sorrow, disease and pain, she was always able to find a little flower or something else to appreciate its beauty and to be thankful in lieu of focusing on the displeasure of all the other things that were apparent to others.
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though NOTHING is a miracle. The other is as though EVERYTHING is a miracle”. (Albert Einstein)
Thank you for all we have through this beautiful experience we call LIFE and forgive us for the times that we have detached ourselves by our aggressions toward any living being when we have felt lost, unwanted, hurt, lonely and separated from the unity that we share as the absolute truth.
Alex Abossein,
InnerFit, Oasis for Perfect Health