216: Freedom Is All In The Mind

<p>We cannot stop remembering the past.  We cannot stop thinking about the future.  We learn from the past, good and bad and we prepare for the future, before it arrives.  These are survival mechanisms the species has mastered.  We can strip out the worry bits of those two activities and then life looks a lot different.</p> <p> </p> <p>Motivational quotes are everywhere and they remind us of useful things we already know, but have forgotten.  Two recent messages struck me with their introspective power.  Both are by recognised thought leaders.  One was a distinguished academic, psychologist and philosopher.  The other was a distinguished psychologist and holocaust survivor.  Their conclusions are profound and achieved through different experiences and understandings of the human psyche.</p> <p> </p> <p>William James (1842-1910) taught at Harvard and has been called “the father of American psychology”.  He was a leader in the idea that we could control our lives through our mind.  He said, “The greatest discovery of our generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.  As you think, so shall you be”. </p> <p> </p> <p>This was a breakthrough notion at that time.  The prevailing idea had been that  God’s will, chance, fate or luck determined your life.</p> <p> </p> <p>Victor Frankl (1905-1997) a Nazi concentration camp inmate, survived the holocaust and subsequently wrote a fascinating book called, “Man’s Search For Meaning”.  Through his personal experience of horrendous torment he found, “Everything can be taken from a man…but the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way”.</p> <p> </p> <p>Given we have this mental power to control how we think, then why is it we are so poor at it?  We find ourselves replaying the same old movie in our mind, on a pitiful endless loop, of some past humiliation, insult, degradation or unfairness that we have suffered.  If we can control our thoughts, then why can’t we hit