In my previous post, *Caught Between Self-Sabotage and Learning, *I explored why humans have the greatest capacity for both self-sabotage and unlimited learning. In this post, I attempt to transcend our paradoxical nature.

What Can We Learn in the Depths of Our Mind?

The Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl’s essential teaching is:

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space.

In that space lies our freedom and our power to choose our response.

*In our response lies our growth and our happiness.” *(Stephen R. Covey in Pattakos & Dundon, 2017)

Viktor Frankl is saying that there is a small yet significant space in our minds—between stimulus and response. Let’s take a moment to gaze into the depths of that space. What can we discover in the depths of our mind?

Every stimulus begins as an event: a sensation, an emotion, a tension, or an impulse. Every stimulus can become a memory. This level is not entirely under our control; it happens to us. The range of experiences we can have varies greatly, from sitting safely by the fireplace at home to wandering around homeless in a foreign culture while fleeing violence and dogma.

These stimuli include physiological reactions from our body, old traumas and emotions, evolutionary reflexes, affective resonances, and the direct experience of life moving through us. Therefore, the stimulus is not an enemy, but rather a rich signal of life. Our mental space begins precisely when we do not fully coincide with this impulse.

Frankl refers to the possibility of the observation process, which is the ability to observe consciously what is happening without immediately agreeing with it, suppressing it, or rationalizing it.

The Meeting Space Within

We can view the mind as the place where perception, a bodily process, and meaning, a mental process, meet. As this is an observation process, consciousness is not a passive mirror, but rather a living, relational space. This space is the inner openness from which freedom and growth can arise. It is only in this space that a response becomes possible that is not a reflex, but a meaningful choice.

This is where our meaning-making process comes in: interpretation, appreciation, direction, narrative, and moral orientation. At this moment, the mind and consciousness collaborate to create new meaning, which then feeds back into the body and transforms the entire process of existence.

A dynamic emerges that touches our lives and opens our consciousness to a field of freedom. Through this process of creating meaning, we can choose, grow, and become. This creates a circular feedback loop. The chosen meaning changes the body. The body then changes perception. Perception changes meaning. Thus, freedom becomes a continuous process rather than a single moment.

Our psychology is not about "control" or "willpower," but rather, it is about the resonance between the three living dimensions of the body, mind, and consciousness. The space between stimulus and response is the resonance space, where life is not suppressed but consciously experienced.

The space in between is where the body, mind, and consciousness converge to create a new form of life. In that space, it’s not just about superficiality versus depth. Rather, it is about the quality of the space that emerges when the body, mind, and consciousness interact. This quality can be superficial or deep, clear or cloudy, open or constricted, resonant or disruptive. It is a living field, not a static scale.

However, the depth of that space is a crucial factor. That meeting space is the axis of our freedom. It is not merely a pause between stimulus and response. Rather, it is a living membrane, a field of attunement, and a creative space where the processes of existence and meaning converge. It is a dynamic co-creation of existential processes.

The depth of that space determines how much of the body we can perceive, how much of the mind we can understand, and how much consciousness is accessible. In other words, our humanness is determined by the depth of our space within.

When Learning Enters

When space is shallow, we fall back on our reflexes. Meaning becomes automatic, reactive, and narrow. Consciousness becomes more of an echo than a field. Freedom becomes minimal. The response becomes an extension of the stimulus. This is the psychology of survival and conditioning.

When the space is deep, the body becomes a source of information instead of a compelling impulse; the mind becomes an instrument of meaning instead of a generator of noise; and consciousness becomes a supportive, opening force. Real choice arises, and the response becomes a strength, not a reflex. This is the psychology of attunement, freedom, and fulfilment. There is always a possibility of space. That space is a dynamic process that we can deepen, refine, and compose. That learning is a huge shift with deep implications.

In this vision, space is not merely given, but rather, it is developable. Space is not static; it is alive. Space is not only psychological, but also existential, physical, meaningful, and conscious. Space is not only freedom; it is also relationship. The space within our minds is an ecology of inner encounters.

The quality of the meeting space is of the utmost importance. But not in a simple "deep or superficial" way. It is a living field that we are constantly composing with our bodies, minds, and consciousness as three voices in one connected whole.

Humans are beings who can learn to become their own depth. The richness of being human is the ability to move with the depth of life itself. Wonder and curiosity are the emotions that make this movement tangible. Humans are rich because they can learn to become more than themselves and transcend their own limitations. In this learning lies our richness, freedom, and growth—the creative foundation of a healthy mind as the strength to stand tall in these turbulent times of acceleration, alienation, and polarization. Life finds new meaning by learning to transcend our self-sabotaging nature.