This is self-work, and I'm Dr. Margaret Rutherford.

At self-work, we discuss psychological and emotional issues and what you can do about them,

whether that's learning self-acceptance, taking action, or seeking therapy or treatment.

Eight years ago, I extended the walls of my practice to reach those of you who might already be

knowledgeable about mental health treatment, but also to those of you who might say you'd never

darken the door of a therapist. And yet, you are here. I'll answer your questions while I invite

you to take a few minutes for your

own self-work. We impose what should be goals and whatever. Okay, you got to go to college,

you got to do all this stuff. Whereas Frankel said it must be self-chosen. It's about you following

your instinct saying, I'm curious, or even when you following your instinct, saying, I'm curious,

or even when you started your practice, or me, I'm not doing anything I ever in my life dreamed

I would be doing. I mean, I have just been following this bouncing ball and called to do these

things. Welcome to this week's edition of self-work. Perhaps one of the most difficult things we all face is how to find meaning in the moments or experiences of our lives that are cruel or devastating, frightening, or even despairing.

The very idea that that might be possible can seem to completely ignore the very real pain or injury of that moment.

One of the most eye-opening books I ever read I was introduced to in a freshman class I took

in college. The course was geared toward searching for different ways of finding meaning

in life and the study of how different writers and philosophers felt about that, both ancient and present day.

So the point of the course, I think he was even called something about finding meaning.

That book was Victor Frankel's Man's Search for Meaning.

I read it from cover to cover as he told the story of being a prisoner in four different encampments during the Holocaust.

What stayed with me in my 18-year-old wisdom was how he'd both held on to his sanity, and what he said may have

even kept him literally alive, was because he'd vowed to discover the tiniest shreds of meaning

...