Choosing Your Experience

I was greatly humbled and inspired when I came across an excerpt from the journal of Anne Frank today. It was a powerful reminder that we choose how we experience everything in life. You can choose to experience the negativity, spend your energy lamenting in your victimhood, or you can choose to experience the adventure, challenge, excitement of the unknown, all while growing and becoming stronger along the way.

As I read this, I found it so incredible that a girl of such a young age, in such a horrific experience, had the strength of mind and resolve to go about her struggle with such a mindset. Knowing that whatever the outcome may be, only she could make the choice to find a way to experience joy in each day. If she could do it, faced with the terror her and her family we placed in, so can we all. It reads:

“I’ve often been down in the dumps, but never desperate. I look upon our life in hiding as an interesting adventure, full of danger and romance, and every privation as an amusing addition to my diary. I’m young and strong and living through a big adventure; I’m right in the middle of it and can’t spend all day complaining because it’s impossible to have any fun! I’m blessed with many things; happiness, a cheerful disposition, and strength. Every day I feel myself maturing, I feel the liberation drawing near, I feel the beauty of nature and the goodness of the people around me. Every day I think what a fascinating and amusing adventure this is. With all that, why should I despair?”

This truly is a testament to the power of the human mind and human spirit. How much more could you accomplish each day if you chose to focus your energy on the opportunity before you, and the growth that you experience with each challenge? What kind of greater momentum could you bring into your world if you shift your energy from the negative to the positive? What have you got to lose? Think of it this way-

“It's a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won't go” ~ Bertrand Russell