Dr. Eger and Me - A Lifetime Of Learning
It is 1993, I am 13 years old, and we are all sitting spellbound in our 8th grade English class, as my grandmother recounts her dramatic story of holocaust survival. As we have just finished reading Eli Weisel’s Night, everyone is fully aware of what horror she is speaking about. But hearing it from her, from this enigma who elegantly weaves lessons for how to live TODAY with her engrossing tale of survival 50 years earlier, leaves us all quiet and exceptionally focused for a group of fidgety teens.
We walked out of that classroom changed. To this day I have conversations with classmates who recount the experience of hearing my grandmother speak in school and the impact her story had on them. Her first-hand recount not only made history come alive, but she herself was a model of perseverance and love.
Today her story and her wisdom have become part of the healing forces in this world. And though I am not surprised, it is sometimes unbelievable that the intimate stories of my family, have moved into the public domain. What I have discovered both in that classroom in 8th grade and today working alongside Edie is that her story is changing people’s lives. Her influence is undeniable, and her wisdom has inspired so many people who felt there was NOTHING that they could take those next steps on their healing path.
After that day in 8th grade, I started to wonder how I would have responded had I been thrust from my young adult life in Hungary at 16 years old, straight into a Nazi concentration camp, losing my parents, and the life I had known, in an instant. Would I have survived? What does it take in a person to not only make it through such a traumatic ordeal, but to use my past to help me heal and grow? As Edie says, to take the manure of my past and grow roses in it.
A frightening thought consumed me throughout my teens and into adulthood: What if I was not made of the same metal that my grandmother was? Do I have the inner strength and self-confidence required to work through my own challenges and traumas to find the gold?
So I decided to spend more time with my grandmother, to see if I could come to learn the wisdom and ways of being that would help me have the fortitude to not only survive some hypothetical horror, but to be more centered, more confident, more capable in navigating my every day reality. What I have learned in my years sitting with Edie at her breakfast table, discussing love and life and hopes and challenges, is that the key to moving from a victim to a survivor to a thriver is to live from this one simple truth: Being aware of what I put in my mind - the thoughts, beliefs, and stories I think and believe - is the key to unlocking my potential and living a life of freedom and peace.
Edie calls it a simple truth, because once you see this as true, it becomes easy to notice which thoughts, beliefs and stories are moving me towards the life I want, and which are not. This doesn’t magically get rid of the challenges. As Edie says, “Where does it say that life is easy?” We know that hardship and trauma - both personal and societal - will enter our lives. As Edie says, “We cannot change our past. What we can change is how we think about it.”
And that is where each of us finds the key to our own mental prisons. We learn to trust our inner voice by decreasing the noise that is holding us back and elevating the thoughts, beliefs, and stories that are helping us be our true selves.
Edie often says, “I used to wonder, why did I survive? Now I know it is to teach people how to be FOR something, not AGAINST something. To do everything in my power to keep what happened to me from ever happening again.” For me, as a descendant of a Holocaust Survivor, I know in my soul that at any moment life can change forever. And so I am focused on shedding light on her story - so that those in this world who are seeking healing, who want to end generational trauma, who are looking for healing, who want to make a positive change in their lives, who want their light to shine and and need a hand to get there - will have access to the wisdom and tools you can rely on to get you there.
If you are struggling with past trauma, with discovering your life’s purpose, with what YOU are uniquely here to do…. then Edie’s wisdom is for you.
It took me all these years to discover what I was really feeling back in 8th grade. Whatever challenges or traumas we face in our past, we have the power to choose how we want to live our life. It is ours to learn to create a new relationship with our past, to discover the confidence and trust in ourselves to face any ordeal, and to see clearly our northstar that will pull us forward into the future our hearts desire.
As a fellow student of Dr. Eger’s wisdom, I am grateful to be on this journey with you, aspiring together to meet each moment in our lives and become the very best version of ourselves.
In gratitude,
Jordan
