The greatest prison is the one you create inside your own mind
March 2025I heard this story few days ago, and it hasn’t left me since.
Imagine being 16 years old, excited about a date, wondering what dress to wear. That was Edith Eger’s reality—until the knock on the door.
In 1944, in Nazi-occupied Hungary, Edith, her sister, and her parents were taken from their home and packed onto a train bound for Auschwitz. Within hours of arrival, both her parents were murdered.
Not long after, Edith was ordered to dance for the senior prison guards. And here’s where her story takes a turn that is nothing short of extraordinary.
She remembered the last words her mother said to her: "Edith, nobody can ever take from you the contents you put inside your own mind."
So, when she danced in Auschwitz, she wasn’t in Auschwitz. In her mind, she was performing at the Budapest Opera House, dressed in a flowing gown, the orchestra playing, the audience cheering.
And then she had a realization—one that would shape her entire life.
She saw the prison guards not as her captors but as prisoners themselves. They weren’t free. She was.
Years later, she said: "I have lived in Auschwitz, and I can tell you—the greatest prison is the one you create inside your own mind."
Let that sink in.
How often do we imprison ourselves with self-doubt, fear, or old stories that no longer serve us? Edith’s story is an invitation—a call to free ourselves, not by changing our circumstances, but by transforming the way we see them.
What if true freedom isn’t about where you are, but about who you choose to be?
(Dr. Edith Eger is a Holocaust survivor, psychologist, and bestselling author of The Choice and The Gift, where she shares her journey of healing and resilience.)
