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Long story short, “Man’s Search for Meaning” is about enduring the act of suffering and how it actually leads to the happiness of an individual. By going through the trials and tribulations, suffering can bring forth many successes in the long run as it can provide a sense of meaning in our lives.
What is the hardest part of your life?
Is it getting bad grades in school? Getting the wrong order for your coffee? Experiencing loss with friends and family members? Being yelled at by an unsupportive boss? Struggling to find perishable food and water the next day?
The point is, you can’t go through life without experiencing some form of hardship, and that this hardship is relative to each of our own unique situations as individuals.
Usually, we were taught that suffering in a traditional sense is viewed as a negative aspect that we should try to ignore in our lives. However as we often find out, experiencing tough situations can actually be a blessing in disguise and contribute to the successes we achieve later in life.
Easily one of the most impactful books I have ever read, Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning” had taught me a lot about life, and ultimately how suffering can actually lead to happiness in our everyday lives.
Drawing from Frankl’s experiences we can learn:
For those who don’t know
Viktor Frankl is an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist and most notably a Holocaust survivor. Most famously, Frankl had documented his experiences in a Concentration Camp, drawing out life lessons and human psychology through his published book Man’s Search for Meaning.
From the horrors of the concentration camps in World War 2 as a holocaust survivor, Frankl had developed an understanding when it comes to finding one’s meaning and purpose through experiences of suffering.
His experiences in the concentration camp provided him a unique perspective in human psychology of how we can respond differently to the same set of circumstances.
From this, he understood that those who choose to react positively or negatively under those same circumstances, resulted in either making the most out of our selves, or succumbing to the external forces around us.
Stimulus & Response:
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.
The cause and effect principles that ripple throughout our lives is known as the Stimulus and Response. The stimulus is defined as the trigger and the response is the result and output of that trigger.
For every type of event, situation or circumstance you are in, there is a choice to be made. In other words, there is a constant flow of stimulus that we would encounter, and our choices represent the response that would result.
During these situations, we usually have the option to either accept the situation for what it is OR choose to react in a way more authentic to ourselves regardless of the environment.
When we tend to choose the path of accepting the situation, we choose to deny our freedom. It is denied in a sense where we let the situation dictate our actions and take control of the decisions we make.
By staying in this constant loop, as bad or unfortunate events happen to us, there would be a tendency to blame the environment. This creates an unhealthy mindset as you become enslaved to external factors out of your control.
On other other hand, if we choose to take charge and decide what will become of ourselves, is when we achieve freedom. The freedom of being our true authentic selves is what empowers us with the decision to endure the difficulties of any environment.
Our Suffering:
Suffering is an ineradicable part of life.
No matter how little or tragic any particular act of suffering is, it will always fill our minds with despair and hardship. The amount of suffering is irrelevant, as the capacity of handling suffering will always differ from person to person.
The idea of suffering is typically seen as a form of pain or hardship that should be avoided at all costs. Yet despite the pain and discomfort, suffering actually provides a component of deeper meaning in our lives.
With suffering, there lies a chance for us to either avoid it, or make the most out of it by achieving something through it. This deeper meaning provides the opportunity to actually make use of the situation, and build a sense of purpose towards a long-term goal to achieve in life.
In the concentration camps, Frankl noted that the prison inmates who dreaded the current circumstances did not make it far in terms of being treated poorly by the prison guards and actually surviving through the camp.
While the prisoners who survived longer, tended to have a more positive outlook. This resulted as they found a sense of meaning within this period of suffering to latch on to, in order to bear the conditions of the camp.
Our Happiness:
It is this spiritual freedom- which cannot be taken away that makes life meaningful and purposeful.
The connection between suffering and freedom bridges the gap towards happiness.
In many forms, happiness has many interpretations through success and relationships, however Frankl defines that happiness takes form in finding a sense of purpose and meaning.
Having a sense of purpose in life moulds an individuals values and allows them to reach spiritual heights at a higher level. Those who carry on with meaning, can endure any environment and reap the rewards of achievement in the long run.
It is our upmost duty to find what that meaning is for us, as each individual would have a different interpretation of what this sense of purpose actually is.
It all starts by making those tough choices in the beginning where there is that decision to respond positively or negatively to the various types of stimuli we come across.
What can WE do from here?
From this point on, as we come across different situations in life, we must remember that there is always a decision to make.
A decision to either accept the situation for what it is OR to take matters in our own hands and make it as positive as possible.
If you would like to give Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning a read while supporting the blog feel free to click below:
#1: Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Viktor Frankl.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 29 Aug. 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/Viktor-Emil-Frankl.
#2: Frankl, Viktor E. Man’s Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984. Print.
