Reflection: Zooming Out and Turning Toward

Viktor Frankl taught two ways of finding meaning amid suffering: zooming out and turn toward (the paradoxical intention).

To zoom out is to lift your gaze beyond the moment, to see your current pain not as the whole story, but as one scene in a much larger picture. It softens the edges of fear by reminding you: this, too, is part of a greater unfolding.

To turn toward is to stop resisting what frightens you. Instead of fighting anxiety, you gently imitate it, exaggerate it, or even laugh at it. Like someone pretending to have a panic attack, the body suddenly realizes there is no threat. Control returns through acceptance, not through struggle.