To harness a higher force, you have to become one with it. You do that by taking on the same form the force takes—making yourself into a miniversion of it. No amount of thinking can do this for you; you need to change your state of being.

He summarized his response to suffering in his book Man’s Search for Meaning. His amazing conclusion was that even under indescribably harsh conditions—sleeplessness, starvation, and the ever-present threat of death—there was an opportunity to grow in inner strength. In fact, this was the one thing the Nazis couldn’t take away from a prisoner. In t

This path develops what’s most lacking in our outwardly oriented society: an “inner greatness.” We’ve been conditioned to associate greatness with people who’ve achieved power or fame in the outside world, such as a Napoleon or a Thomas Edison. We place little value on an inner greatness that can be developed by anyone, regardless of his station in

These “warm-bath” activities just cripple us further. The more you hide in the warm bath, the less willing you become to deal with the cold shower of reality.

Friedrich Nietzsche, a daring thinker of the late nineteenth century, put it best in his famous aphorism: “Whatever does not kill me makes me stronger.” His idea that adversity has a positive value was new.

The first step is to learn to experience fear without the mental image of the dreaded future event. Focus all your awareness on how the fear feels right now, in the present. When you’ve separated fear from what you’re afraid of in the future, it becomes just another kind of pain you process with the Reversal of Desire.

The central task of an adult is to find her purpose in the world. This purpose is different for each person—finding it is an individual matter. The Force of Forward Motion only works in an individual if she consciously chooses to use it—and accepts the pain that comes with it.

Oliver Wendell Holmes in “The Voiceless” wrote: “Alas for those that never sing, / But die with all their music in them.” It is a tragedy to die with your song unsung. What’s worse is that we are guilty of stilling our own voices—we silence ourselves. Yet

There may be many positive things in your future—great joy and fulfillment. But inevitably, life will never exempt you from facing more pain. Once you accept this, your goal will no longer be for pain to stop; it will be to increase your tolerance for it—which is exactly what the Reversal of Desire will do for you.