December 30th TAKING THE BITE OUT OF IT “To bear trials with a calm mind robs misfortune of its strength and burden.” —SENECA, HERCULES OETAEUS, 231–232 T he people you admire, the ones who seem to be able to successfully handle and deal with adversity and difficulty, what do they have in common? Their sense of equilibrium, their orderly discipline. On the one-yard line, in the midst of criticism, after a heartbreaking tragedy, during a stressful period, they keep going. Not because they’re better than you. Not because they’re smarter. But because they have learned a little secret. You can take the bite out of any tough situation by bringing a calm mind to it. By considering it and meditating on it in advance. And this is true not just for our day-to-day adversities but for the greatest and most unavoidable trial of all: our own eventual death. It could come tomorrow, it could come in forty years. It could be quick and painless, or it could be excruciating. Our greatest asset in that ordeal will not be religion, it will not even be the wise words of the philosophers. It will be, simply, our calm and reasoned mind.
Happiness
“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing"
Good
“Waste no more time arguing what a good person should be. Be One.” – Marcus Aurelius