Reading Recommendation: The Choice
- susanneschiffauer
- 25. Juli
- 3 Min. Lesezeit
Aktualisiert: vor 7 Tagen
What if the way we speak to ourselves is the root of our feelings?
As a PR consultant, I work with language every day. Reading "The Choice" by Dr Edith Eger, I felt overwhelmed by how true her story and her learnings ring. Moreover, I was reminded of the importance of words and how choosing the right ones for telling our story can help us reconnect with what really matters. Why?
Language shapes our thoughts.
Few books have stayed with me the way this one has. "The Choice" doesn’t just inspire. It reframes. Quietly, persistently, and with deep human insight.
Her book is more than a memoir. It’s a lifeline.
"The Choice" is a powerful story of a Holocaust survivor and her family. It is a tale about one of the strongest women to have walked this earth, a story about new beginnings. Most of all, it is about the radical power of choosing. Not what happens to us, but how we live with it. We often mistake our deepest beliefs for facts.
Have you ever thought you´re not enough? Another maddening idea: “Only perfection is safe.” These ideologies shape our feelings. Our feelings shape our actions. And suddenly we’re caught in patterns we didn’t consciously choose - until we learn that we can.
To change our behavior, we must change our feelings, and to change our feelings, we change our thoughts.
What moved me most in Eger´s book is not only the idea of survival, but the concept of integration. Of acknowledging pain, without being defined by it. Of accepting the past and choosing - again and again - to live. Fully. Responsibly. Without performance, but with presence.
There is a life I can save: It is mine. The one I am living right now, this precious moment.
This sentence stopped me. We spend so much time looking backward, rewriting the past in our minds, or rushing forward, trying to control what hasn’t happened yet. But the only real moment we can shape, the only one we actually live in, is now. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Now. And that’s where the power lies. To choose how we respond. To shift the story we tell ourselves. To speak differently. To act with intention. And to pause, if only for a breath, before the old script takes over.
Choosing how you feel is strongly influenced by the words you choose.
As someone who works with language every day, I see its weight and its possibility. Words can reinforce fear or open doors.
They can keep us in our roles, or allow us to grow beyond them. They help us connect, not only with others, but with ourselves. But only when we use them thoughtfully. Not loudly. Not for show. Just truthfully, and at the right time.
This is what "The Choice" reminded me of: that what we say, even inwardly, matters. That we are not our past. That clarity and compassion are never a weakness. That the most powerful thing we can do is speak with intention and then live accordingly.
We don’t know where we’re going, we don’t know what’s going to happen, but no one can take away from you what you put in your own mind.
Travel light, speak true. The story you tell yourself is the one you live. And wherever you're going, make sure to take language that serves you well.
The choice is yours.
Photos: Jon Tyson and Glen Carry via Unsplash
"Once we are recognizing and taking responsibility for our feelings, we can learn to recognize and take responsibility for our role in the dynamic that shapes our relationships." (Dr Edith Eger)
"A good definition of being a victim is when you keep the focus outside yourself, when you look outside yourself for someone to blame for your present circumstances, or to determine your purpose, fate, or worth." (Dr Edith Eger) Where do you put your focus?
Photo: Letizia Bordonie via Unsplash
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