Finding Meaning for Health: Lessons from Viktor Frankl

“The Wizard of Oz' is my favorite. It explains what life on this planet is about. Although Dorothy reaches Oz, she finds she had what she needed to go back to Kansas all along, but the Good Witch tells her that she had to learn it for herself. All of the answers to the meaning of life are there.”
—RuPaul

“Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.”
— Viktor Frankl

We are buffeted by howling winds of news, ideas, outrage, and trifles which causes some of us to lose energy and direction.

What we are missing now more than ever is a sense of individual purpose. Without that sense of meaning, depression and bad health may follow.

This becomes noticeable when we have a break, planned or unplanned, from what we feel required to do—whether that’s work, school, or spending time with loved ones. When we step away, the time left open brings with it a sense of despondency and despair, as we are faced with too many choices and no clear direction to guide us.

I found a short but profound book written by a psychiatrist, Viktor Frankl, who survived four different Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, despite losing his parents, brother, and pregnant wife.

One year after his release in 1946, Frankl wrote Man’s Search for Meaning—where he explains how a sense of purpose can provide strength and resilience, even during the most difficult times.

Read the full piece on my Substack here.