“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
This quote is from a man, Viktor E. Frankl, who was imprisoned and lost his entire family in Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust. Viktor Frankl (1905-1997) survived, and went onto become one of the most influential minds in 20th century psychology.
The concept of choice in our response to circumstances may seem foreign to us. Things happen: how are we not supposed to react? I’d like to offer that, if a man in the absolute worst of circumstances has the personal agency choose his response, then there is hope for the rest of us, too. When challenged by the assumption that we are shaped by our circumstances, he says:
“But what about human liberty? Is there no spiritual freedom in regard to behavior and reaction to any given surroundings? … The experiences of camp life show that man does have a choice of action. … Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress.
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
When stress mounts, try to remember: your attitude can be a choice. You have the power and freedom to make that choice.