While flipping through the book mentioned above I back tracked through chapter 10 (p.273-290) and I've started the exercises or am preparing to do them (exercise trampoline - shopping trip).
"Living With Joy and Purpose
You did not cause your disease, nor are you responsible for curing it. If you have breast cancer [or anything else], do not blame yourself. There are many causative factors that place all women [and men] at risk. However, if you orient your living to finding meaning, purpose, and joy, your immune system will respond positively to these cues and will help to protect you from breast cancer [and other illnesses] or to recover from it more quickly.' (p.274-5)
"Your Unique Way of Being in the World
".....When we recover our hope for living a satisfying and meaningful life, we strengthen our defenses against cancer [and illness] as our body and mind respond to our spiritual commitment to live. By finding our own unique and joyous way of being in the world, breast cancer [and other illnesses] will be less likely to find us."(p.275)
"Searching for meaning and purpose
"In his book Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl writes about the ways in which we we derive meaning from life. For our well-being what we expect from life is not as important as how we respond to life's expectations of us, he suggests.....Frankl called his method of responding to the world 'logotherapy' and wrote that we could all discover the meaning in
life in three different ways."(p.275)
Meaning Through Doing
The first way to find meaning is through creating a work or doing a deed. This includes meaningful work or a career, any artistic expression or something we make with our hands, as well as the day-to day daily actions of our lives...
Meaning Through Experience
The second way to gather meaning from life is from experiencing something or encountering someone. We may experience goodness, truth, beauty, nature, or culture. We can consciously deepen our experience of these by seeking out people or places with deep connections to us, by particiating in events or occasions that are moving for us.
- Goodness-spend time with good people, retreats, volunteer organizations healing centres, inspirational books (biographies) etc..
- Truth- studying the works of spiritual giants, meditation, contemplation, emotional honesty in our interactions.
- Beauty-when we surround ourselves with beauty, we feed ourselves meaning. See beauty where you didn't see it before.
- Nature-Nature is there for us to experience meaning. Take a trip, walk, plant, go to the beach. How can you bring more of those experiences into your life?
- Culture-music, art, dance, theatre -- each of these has the potential to deepen our connection to our spirital natures.
Love-Of all interactions, it is loving encounters that bring us the most meaning. When we love another, we help them to actualize their potential, and when we are loved, we more easily realize more of our own potential.
Meaning Through Our Attitude Towards Suffering
The third way we can experience meaning, according to Frankl, is by 'the attitude we take towards unavoidable suffering. When we suffer, we are challenged to change ourselves, and if the suffering is unavoidable, we can triumph in the way we bear it provided that we find meaning in it.' Suffering can be the hero's path, although it challenges us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. If suffering is avoidable, then we should remove its cause, whether it be physical, psychological, or political. If the suffering is unavoidable, then, through our journey into the dark reaches of the soul, we can sometimes pass to the other side having gained in compassion, acceptance, tolerance, and wisdom.....Once we have felt pain, we sense others' pain. We are then more able to extend our hearts and minds in compassionate service."(p.276-7)
Serene has taken my spot on the computer chair, so I will continue this later with the Finding Joy and Purpose Exercise.
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