UNDERSTANDING MEANING AND PURPOSE

In 1942, Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl was sent to a concentration camp along with his, mother, father and brother, and wife of just 9 months. Over the next four years, they were all killed through the cruelty of the system, but Frankl himself survived. 

After release, Frankl went on to pioneer a new approach to supporting people with their mental health, in part informed by his experiences of living within a concentration camp. He proposed that overcoming adversity or challenge could be massively supported by finding a sense of meaning and purpose within suffering.

He famously said…

“He who has a ‘why’ to live for, can bear almost anything”

This approach, known as logotherapy requires it’s patients to find and pursue a ‘higher purpose’ in whatever they experience.  His book, “Man’s Search for Meaning” is the subject of our audio reflection this week.

Being honest, I wouldn’t give this approach of meaning and purpose, the credibility I do if it hadn’t been proposed by someone who had witnessed and experienced seemingly intolerable suffering. Frankl was truly exposed to some of the worst atrocities committed by humankind, but was able to use these experiences as a catalyst for his later career.

Thisisn’t about putting on a brave face and pretending everything is ok. It’s also not about disregarding suffering. Instead, it invites us to regain control over the suffering by using the experience gained for the benefit of ourselves and others. In doing so, the power of the ‘bad’ is broken as it is used instead for good. We are empowered, we regain dignity, we become the author of a better story rather than the subject of a bad one.

We will all have had different experiences of the last couple of years, but no one has been immune to at least something of the impact of the global pandemic we’ve lived through. You may feel relatively unscathed by it all, you may feel devastated by it, but I’m pretty sure your life will have altered in some way as a result of it all. 

We don’t need to disregard the challenges we have faced, but we might benefit from making more sense of them. 

In our Well? resources this month, we want to take some time to consider what meaning and purpose we might be able to find from our challenges. Finding meaning and purpose is an important part of connecting with that which is more than ourselves, that which is ‘Other’, an essential part of our wellbeing. 

TO GET STARTED … TRY THIS

For now, spend a few moments considering what thoughts, images, ideas come into your mind when you read Viktor Frankl’s quote:

“He who has a ‘why’ to live for, can bear almost anything”

Consider putting the quote somewhere prominent and ‘chewing it over’ as you come across it in the coming week.  Check Andy’s video called ‘Words and Pictures’ which explores in more detail how we can use phrases like this to focus on what’s important in our lives.