Morning Motivation: Transcending the Darkness

In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl talked about the horror that he faced in a concentration camp. He also talked about the spiritual core within himself that transcended the pain and despair surrounding him. His insight into that spiritual core became the basis for a form of a psychological treatment called logotherapy, which strengthens the spiritual core within each of us to overcome whatever we might be facing.

As an example of his philosophy, Viktor Frankl talked about the children in the concentration camp who drew on the walls where they were imprisoned. They could have drawn pictures reflecting terror, loss, anger, or even revenge. Instead, they drew pictures of butterflies. Their pure, radiant spirits transcended the darkness.

If you are facing a challenging time in your life today, as if imprisoned in a cold and dark place, here are some quotes from Viktor Frankl to help strengthen your spiritual core:

• “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
• “Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”
• “In a last violent protest against the hopelessness of imminent death, I sensed my spirit piercing through the enveloping gloom. I felt it transcend that hopeless, meaningless world, and from somewhere I heard a victorious ‘Yes’ in answer to my question of the existence of an ultimate purpose. At that moment a light was lit in a distant farmhouse, which stood on the horizon as if painted there, in the midst of the miserable gray of a dawning morning in Bavaria. ‘Et lux in tenebris lucet"-and the light shineth in the darkness.’”
• “What is to give light must endure burning.”
• “The crowning experience of all, . . . is the wonderful feeling that, after all he has suffered, there is nothing he need fear any more - except his God.”

May you transcend any darkness today with your pure, radiant spirit!

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