Who inspires you?

There are certain people in history that have always been a huge inspiration for me. There are certain individuals that I will never get a chance to meet in person, yet through their words and actions, will leave an indelible impact on my life. These individuals sit on my "intellectual board of trustees." These people give me strength when I think I have none. They inspire me in times of hardship and give me the strength to persevere in times of struggle. They open my heart to vulnerability and allow me to break down the walls of ego and judgment. They open my heart to love and teach me that we cannot love and judge at the same time. These individuals have been confronted with such significant criticism, judgment and hardship, yet continued to live with love in their heart. If you look any of these individual lives, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Viktor Frankl, they faced extreme adversity yet stayed resolute in their values and convictions. Gandhi lived his whole life for service to equality of human rights and overall humanity through non-violent resistance. His life was about overcoming his own internal struggles and insecurities. Then you have Nelson Mandela who was jailed for 27 years in his struggle to create an end to apartheid. And lastly, there is Viktor Frankl who had to endure some of the harshest conditions known to mankind in the hell that were the Nazi concentration camps. He experienced the slaughter of his entire family and many of his friends, and not only survived, but used it as an opportunity to develop a philosophy and meaning of life surrounding the questions he asked about what made some of the prisoners die and others live who were going through the same experience. It inspired him to write a book called "Man's Search for Meaning," which I highly recommend reading. It was on his quest for answers that lead him to the conclusion that life is about meaning and when there is no meaning, there is no life. And who creates the meaning? You and me. There is no meaning in life except for the meaning that we place on it. He found that even in the most heinous and unconscionable situations, meaning can be created and value can be instilled - "Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.... For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment." It is not our experience in life that defines us. It is how we respond to our life's experiences that defines us. It is the value we create, not the value that is inherent, that creates meaning in our lives. We are co-creators. We may not always be able to create the situations of our lives, but we can always choose how we handle the situations we are confronted with. This goes for pleasurable as well as not so pleasurable experiences. I have found there to be 3 universal ways of "being" that allow me the opportunity to create meaning in every situation: vulnerability or authenticity, gratitude, and love. The power of vulnerability or authenticity is you are being 100% true to yourself and who you are. You are wearing your skin and emotions inside-out, on display for the world to see you in your purest form. There is tremendous strength in vulnerability. The strength is in the exposure of our weaknesses, because it is this very connection and openness of our weaknesses that destroys our ego and opens our heart for gratitude. Gratitude can only be given or received in its truest form when you are in a place of complete vulnerability where you are accepting and appreciating of what is exactly as it is. It is this connection with the infinite that opens our heart for love, and allows us to express our divine light and shine the way G-d intended. Marianne Williamson says it best, "Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us.”