inspiration – Breathing Room

“Between stimulus and response there is space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and Freedom.”

– Viktor Frankl

The dichotomy of freedom and responsibility is emphasized by Frankl, especially in regard to the dynamics of a person’s fatalistic entrenchment in the psychical factors of an individual’s life. The pressing issues that concern a person’s psyche have an impact on how that person approaches life.

If a person is stuck in fear, anger, anxiety or depression, this influences that person’s perspective, creating an automatic bias within one’s underlying emotional make-up. A “stuckness” in self-blame, guilt and regret colors the perception of a person’s thoughts and interpretation of immediate as well as past events; this can cause one’s future outlook to look bleak.

An effort must be made to shift a person’s thinking and perspective, so that the emotional muddiness can be cleared up, in order to permit a transition into a clearer perspective. This needs to be more than a “cognitive exercise.” A person consists of mind-body-spirit, and these three fundamental aspects of a human being need to be addressed, so that an effective remedy to one’s mental, physical, and spiritual ailments can be cured.

Bringing a person’s awareness into the present moment, for the sake of developing new responses to the challenges of life, can be of initial benefit to break up the concretized maladaptive ways of viewing oneself. Freedom of choice in the moment, to take responsibility for how one responds to any given situation is key to an essential existence as a human being.