Читать книгу Switch On To Your Inner Strength - Sandy MacGregor - Страница 9

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SWITCHING TO INNER STRENGTH

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Think of all those in your circle of friends. Have you ever seen a situation where two of them are faced with a similar emotional challenge? One rises to the occasion and copes the other doesn't. One succeeds, one fails. Why is this so?

Think of your work environment. Have you ever seen someone who is progressing well, suddenly stopped by an unexpected obstacle? An obstacle they can and could overcome, but don't. Have you seen someone else in the same career who clambers over obstacles one after the other to make it to the top? Same career, same obstacles, one succeeds and one fails. Why is this so?

Think of the television news. Can you recall seeing a report about a victim who has suffered a great injustice? The news reporter invariably tells us that the victim's life “has been ruined” by the terrible experience. But have you ever browsed in the bookshops and seen the stories of people who have gone through the same injustice, conquered its traumatic effects and lead lives of great moral victory? Story after story tells of the victory of the human mind and spirit in circumstances where they could have been excused for just giving up. The victory is invariably one of the inner strength of those individuals, not their outward circumstances.

What is the difference between people in these circumstances? Is it luck? Is it education? Is it who they know or play golf with? Is it their ethnic background, financial resources or social status? No! It is probably none of these things that ever makes the final difference.

The real difference so often lies in that ill defined quality known as their Inner Strength. And to make the point a little finer, it is not just the existence of their inner strength that counted, for it is an assumption of this book that everybody has stocks of inner strength, it is their relative ability to access their inner strength that was important in the end.

What an appealing idea it would be if we could all use this inner strength. But why not? Why can't we all use it .... or, can we? Why is it that the television reporter can be so certain about predictions of ruin, when, left to themselves, people often recover from the worst traumas?

One of the purposes of this book is to open you to the idea that it is possible to use your inner strength in a conscious, self directed and deliberate way.

Viktor Frankl, in his book Man's Search for Meaning described the process of inner strength. Many holocaust victims were shot, gassed, and otherwise murdered violently. For these people any will to survive was transcended by the physical violence of their deaths. It is also true that many of those who died in the holocaust, died of sickness, deprivation and exposure. Of the people who were not actually murdered, the ones who had goals, who had a family they knew they had to survive for and those who had a great purpose, tended to be the ones who withstood enormous difficulties and survived.

Those who were not obeying some great purpose, those who were not gripped by the need to achieve an important goal, soon found no meaning in the daily struggle for life, gave up psychologically, and eventually died.