The most empowering self-perception is that you are a spiritual being. Believing that you are more than your body and your psychological mechanisms implies belief in your ability to reason, to have mastery over yourself and your environment, to discern and to choose wisely. You think about yourself. You reach for higher values and you know that everything you do matters. Having the perception that you were created in the divine image, you recognize your divine power and the responsibility that entails.
Beyond knowing what it means to be human is to know what it means to be you.
Every human person constitutes something unique; each situation in life occurs only once. The concrete task of any person is relative to this uniqueness and singularity. Thus every man at any given moment can have only one single task ~ Frankl 1986:42, The Doctor and the Soul
From this source and others Viktor Frankl expresses the idea that each person is unique. Each person has a special role to play in the world in general and moment to moment. When someone is dying or their life is in danger we keenly feel their irreplacability. There never was someone like this before and there never will be again. There is a reason why you are alive and here today. There is a meaning to your life.
What does this singularity imply about how we relate to others and how we relate to ourselves? Rabbi Natan of Nemirov (whose mentor was Rebbe Nachman of Breslav) says something remarkable. Each and every person has something precious that no one else has. Therefore, we need to receive this precious aspect by speaking to the person with awe and reverence, and we need to find this precious aspect within ourselves as well. (Orach Chaim Vol II, Birkat Hamazon Ch.3, p. 139)
When do you have awe and reverence? Usually it is for someone you look up to as a great leader. Rabbi Natan is teaching us that we are all great leaders. We just have to see it. We have to learn from each other’s preciousness and we have to honor our own.