12/02/2025
The most dangerous prison? The one built with your own mind
I’ve been thinking about a story I heard about Dr. Edith Eger, a remarkable woman with an even more remarkable life.
At 16, Edith was like any other teenage girl in Eastern Europe.. getting ready for a date, wondering which dress to wear.
Just a few hours later, her life changed forever.
A knock on the door. She and her family were taken to Auschwitz. Within hours of arriving, she lost both of her parents.
Soon after, Edith was asked to dance for the senior prison guards.
What she shared next I’ll not forget.
“The last thing my mother said to me was, Edith, no one can ever take from you what you put in your own mind.”
That lesson became her lifeline.
When she was dancing in Auschwitz, in her mind, she wasn’t there at all.
She imagined herself in the Budapest Opera House, dressed in a beautiful gown, with an orchestra playing and a cheering crowd.
Even more powerful, she began to see the prison guards not as her captors, but as prisoners themselves.. trapped in their own minds.
“I’ve lived in Auschwitz,” she said. “But the greatest prison is the one you create in your own mind.”
That story really stopped me in my tracks.
We all have our own mental prisons.. limiting beliefs, fears, doubts.
But what Edith teaches us is that even in the darkest of times, we can choose freedom in our minds.
What’s one thought or belief you’re ready to let go of today?
