Logotherapy: Living A Meaningful Life

Living a meaningful life does not mean orienting your entire existence towards the pursuit of your own happiness. Instead, it is about finding a purpose and working towards it. Above all, it’s about feeling good about who you are, what you have, and everything around you, no more and no less. In the busy everyday life, however, it is difficult to focus the mind, heart and gaze towards an existential goal when what you encounter more often is meaningless.

Unfortunately, it is easier to be overwhelmed by worries and negativity triggered by stress and anxiety. How are you going to find meaning in your life when it absorbs all your energy? It’s complicated, there’s no doubt about it. But as the famous psychoanalyst Erich Fromm said, the meaning of life is simply the art of knowing how to live in oneself.

This is the key to psychological well-being: working on your inner harmony and balance. This means developing good self-knowledge and applying the basic principles of Viktor Frankl’s logo therapy.

Let’s dive right in.

Logotherapy: Learning to find meaning

Most people do not think about the meaning of life unless they are dealing with adversity. That’s when you start asking yourself classic existential questions like, “Why is this happening to me and what does all this mean?” Finding meaning even when everything goes wrong and fate seems to be against you is one of the most transcendental human behaviors.

Stoicism, a philosophical way of thinking founded by Zeno of Kition in 301 BC, suggested that, in order to be happy, you must accept things as they are. That’s a nice thought. But is it possible? How can you achieve that? It is often extremely difficult to make peace with the circumstances. More often than not we resist, get angry and suffer because of what we have lost.

Irvin David Yalom, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University , explains that it takes time to learn to live a meaningful life. At some point, you will take the necessary step toward introspection to connect with your needs and find out what is truly relevant and important to you.

What does it mean to live a meaningful life?

Viktor Frankl was one of the foremost experts on the subject of living a meaningful life. So much so that he used it as the basis for the therapeutic approach he developed to work with patients. He called it logo therapy. Frankl argued that the desire to find existential meaning is a need that everyone feels at some point. Doing so, clarifying what a meaningful life is for you, provides support in tough times.

• First, it is important to understand that everyone has their own definition of what it means to live a meaningful life. It is unique to each individual, and it also changes over time. Your circumstances and your goals tend to vary over the years.
• This search is also a source of motivation. Every time you ask yourself, “What is most important to me right now?” or “What gives me meaning and purpose?”, you focus your attention on exploring your authentic self. This is an exercise in self-knowledge.
• Living a meaningful life also means appreciating your past and present experience. It means finding harmony between what has always been important to you (your values) and what you want out of life (your dreams).

This exercise is important for your mental health. When you have clarity in it, it gives you a reason to live, get up every morning and something to believe in, fight for and dream about.

Viktor Frankl’s legacy: Logotherapy

Viktor Frankl is known for two reasons : Having survived two concentration camps during World War II and his book Life is Meaning . He was a renowned professor of psychiatry who wrote more than 30 books and gave around 210 lectures at almost every university in the world.

A special highlight of his legacy is logotherapy, a kind of therapy that was part of the third school of Viennese therapy after Freud’s psychoanalysis. The engine that gives form and purpose to this psychological approach is to help people live meaningful lives. This is how he helped his patients reach that goal.

Living a meaningful life: You have a body, a mind and a “soul”

Viktor Frankl’s therapy was by no means religious. The concept of a “soul” was a way of talking about a person’s authentic essence. He believed that everyone has a body, a mind and a soul that contains their life story. It is the part of you that holds your voice, values ​​and personality. One of your purposes is to create harmony between these three elements of who you are.

All your experiences, good or bad, are meaningful

Everything you go through in your life means something. Your goal is to identify what it is. Happiness, insecurity, adversity, passion, peace, fear… Try to figure out how to learn from every moment.

You are free to change the course of your life based on what makes sense to you

Sometimes you probably feel trapped by your circumstances. If someone leaves you and you feel alone. Losing a job at a difficult and uncertain time in your life. While these things are happening, you are free to take the path you feel gives your life purpose. Only then will you achieve well-being.

Living a meaningful life means committing to following what motivates you in dark times. The world around you is too chaotic to allow you to drift too far from who you really are.