Auschwitz Survivor Dr Edith Eger on How to Discover Your Inner Power

Fri 19th Mar 2021

A powerful, confronting and challenging conversation with Dr Edith Eger who is a Holocaust survivor, psychologist and expert in the treatment of post-traumatic stress but above all, she’s an incredible human being with an extraordinary story to share.
 
As a Jew living in Eastern Europe under Nazi occupation, Edith was taken to Auschwitz concentration camp with her parents and sister, at the age of 16. She explains how she found her inner resources, how she came to view her guards as the real prisoners, turn hate into pity and, incredibly, she even describes her horrific experience as ‘an opportunity’. She has liberated herself from the prison of her past through forgiveness.
 
She teaches that ‘there is no hierarchy in trauma’ – so though we may not have experienced the unfortunate things that she has everyone’s trauma is unique to them and effects them as an individual and therefore shapes them whether positively or negatively.
 
One of the takeaways from this podcast that strongly resonates is ‘it’s not what happens, it’s what you do with it’. She did not let her misfortunes deter her from being successful in life. Eger explains, we can learn to come to terms with pain, reframe it and become stronger. ‘Change is synonymous with growth’.
 
This podcast covers so many different topics, from parenting and relationship wisdom to insights on semantics and depression.
 
Edith’s message to us is that we can change the thoughts and behaviours that are keeping us imprisoned in the past through forgiveness. She advises that forgiveness isn’t about the ones we forgive, but it is about us. Our liberation and freedom. To let go and not harbour resentment. Forgiveness is a gift to ourselves – to not be a hostage of the past. We don’t forget it or overcome it, you come to terms with it!

Listen to the podcast here.

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