Sometimes It Hurts Too Much
When life gets dark: when we lose our jobs, health, loved ones, or direction: we naturally ask: “Why?”
Logotherapy, founded by Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl, doesn’t give easy answers. It offers something deeper: the power to find meaning even in suffering. He saw that people didn’t die from pain alone, but from the loss of meaning.
In Logotherapy, suffering can become meaningful if we choose to give it meaning.
Examples:
A mother battling cancer chooses to endure the pain of chemo, not just for survival, but to see her son graduate high school.
A teacher laid off during budget cuts begins tutoring migrant children online, rediscovering purpose.
A woman who becomes paralyzed in an accident dedicates her life to advocacy for disabled rights. She could’ve sunk into despair. Instead, she chose to turn pain into purpose.
After losing a child, some parents start foundations in their name. The loss never stops hurting. But meaning gives the pain dignity: a way to honour the life that was.
In dark times, we still have choices: to love, to create, to serve, and to endure with dignity.
We don’t have to be happy to be hopeful. We just have to believe our pain can be useful.