Letters from Madelyn Audiobook: Chapter 11

Choose Our Attitude

Caregiver attitudeIn the early 1960‘s my mother read the book, “Man’s Search for Meaning”, by Dr. Viktor Frankl, a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp. About two years into his imprisonment at Auschwitz, Dr. Frankl realized that it wasn’t always the youngest, strongest, or healthiest people who survived. Obviously, no one has any defense against a gas chamber, but for those who were forced into hard labor in the camps, he noted that often attitude was the main difference in the people who survived and the people who didn’t.

There were two statements in that book that really resonated with Madelyn.  Dr. Frankl wrote, “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,” and, “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

In today’s episode of “Letters from Madelyn,” my mother once again finds herself in an emotional slump.  She decides to turn her worries over to God and adjust her attitude. This isn’t something a person does once. If you are a caregiver, you may need to do it multiple times every day.

One of my mother’s favorite mantras was, “As long as I have the ability to think and reason, I will have the power to choose my attitude toward any person, thing, or event.”

If you find this quote empowering, I hope you will write it on a sticky note and attach it your refrigerator or bathroom mirror. I have discovered through the years that changing and choosing my attitude truly can make an incredibly difficult situation more manageable.

Click here to listen to Chapter 11 – “Choose Our Thoughts”
Play Chapter 1

If you’d like to order an autographed copy of my book, click here: Letters from Madelyn, Chronicles of a Caregiver, Second Edition