Monday, October 10, 2016

Are You Searching for Meaning in Your Life?

                                                   "What is the meaning of life?
                                                      To be happy and useful."
                                                                - Dalai Lama


Do you feel like your life has meaning or a purpose?

Today we can hear a lot of discussions about fulfilling ones purpose in life.

We all want to live a meaningful life. We all want to feel that we matter, that we are seen and heard and in the end we all want to feel that our lives meant something.

A lot of people are wondering what their purpose might be and they are looking and searching all over for it. A lot of times we feel that our purpose must be a huge thing and sometimes we are driving ourselves crazy trying to figure out what our purpose and what the meaning of life is.

Some people may find meaning in life even when they are confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a situation that cannot be changed. Example, an incurable disease such as inoperative cancer. In that situation we are challenged to change ourselves.
Transforming a personal tragedy into triumph.
To turn one´s breakdown into a breakthrough

In Viktor Frankl´s book Man´s search for meaning he is describing life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Based on his own experience and the stories of his patients, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it and move forward. At the heart of his theory, known as logotherpy, is a conviction that the primary human drive is not pleasure but the pursuit of what we find meaningful.
Man´s search for meaning has become ones of the most influential books in America; it inspire us all to find significance in the very act of living.

Logotherpy teaches, there are three main avenues on which one arrives at meaning in life.

The first is by creating work or by doing a deed,

The second is by experiencing something or encountering someone; in other words, meaning can be found not only in work but also in love.

The most important, however, is the third avenue to meaning in life; even the helpless victim of a hopeless situation, facing a fate he cannot change, may rise above himself.
He may turn a personal tragedy into triumph.


"Jerry Long has been paralyzed from his neck down since a diving accident which rendered him a quadriplegic three years ago. He was seventeen when the accident occurred. Today Long can use his mouth stick to type. He attends two courses at Community Collage via a special telephone. The intercom allows Long to both hear and participate in class discussions. He also occupies his time by reading, watching television and writing." And in a letter I received from him, he writes; "I view my life as being abundant with meaning and purpose. The attitude that I adopted on that fateful day has become my personal credo for life: I broke my neck, it didn´t break me. I am currently enrolled in my first psychology course in college. I believe that my handicap will only enhance my ability to help others. I know that without the suffering, the growth that I have achieved would have been impossible."
From Man´s Search For Meaning


In 2012 I was facing my own hopeless situation.
My mom had just died.
I had to walk away from a narcissistically abusive man after being in a relationship with him for several years.
And when I decided to walk away from my relationship I had no option but to leave The US and to return to the country where I was born in (Sweden). I had not lived there since 1987.

When I went back to Sweden I was able to take my was my 2 dogs, some clothes and some personal items with me. At this time it would have been very easy for me to give up..... but I didn´t.

After a couple of months in Sweden and after feeling like it was a hopeless situation I turned things around and started my on-line coaching business.
I wanted to help other people and especially women to find meaning in their own life after a personal tragedy.
I have to make the same statement that Jerry Long did..... without the suffering that I had to go through I would not have been able to achieve the growth that I now have. And because of my own suffering I am now in a better position to help others.
It didn´t break me...it made me stronger.


Man´s search for meaning is a book you must read.
It has sold more that 12 million copes in a total of twenty-four languages.



                                            Karin Glannstam - Personal Success Coach
                                                          www.karinglannstam.com

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