A minute of freedom: how to regain calm in chaos

Viktor Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist and author of Man’s Search for Meaning, written based on his experiences in concentration camps during the Holocaust. During those years, they took away his family, his job, his clothes, his hair, and even his name.

He became just a number tattooed on his arm.

However, amidst all the suffering and despair, he realised something. Although all the prisoners faced the same conditions, they didn’t all react the same way. While some fought among themselves and stole, others stopped to give their last crust of bread to whoever seemed most in need.

The same situation, but with very different experiences.

It was then that Frankl realised that, despite having everything taken from him, one thing was still his: a small, invisible space between what they did to him and how he reacted.

There, he was a free man.

Having control over our lives

But how does this story relate to feeling more in control of your life?

Let me answer with another story.

Some time ago, someone in my family was diagnosed with cancer. Naturally, we went through a period of shock, sadness, and anger at something so unfair happening. It would have been easy to stay there. But despite the fear, anger, and sadness, we tried to create moments of joy in an environment where the idea of ​​death dominated.

During the endless chemotherapy sessions, we watched animated films, joked with the nurses, and talked about the meaning of life.

In other words, we controlled what we could and left the rest to chaos.

This space exists within each of us.

It’s between the urgent email you receive and your reply, or between the moment someone honks at you in traffic and your decision to honk back (or not).

Often, it only takes a minute to make a difference.