A verse of Epictetus:

As time goes by and you build on the habit of matching the appropriate inner resource to each incident, you will not tend to get carried away by life’s appearances. You will stop feeling overwhelmed so much of the time

 

It’s true: many of us feel overwhelmed most of the time, wondering what’s coming next and how we’re going to manage. Who would not want to escape anxiety like that?

 

 

The answer, says Epictetus, is to cultivate the habit of matching the appropriate inner resource to each incident you observe, in yourself and in others.

 

Matching the appropriate inner resource

 

 

If your day seems to fly away and be lost on trivial pursuits, if you feel scattered and unfocused, use this day to practice patience.

The day after, you can practice focus. Write the word ‘focus’ somewhere where you’ll see it, say the word a few times. Determine to remember focus when you experience the least anxiety as you go through your day. Taking these actions creates the presence of focus in and around you. It coalesces focus into being on all levels seen and unseen.

 

Thank you for this opportunity to define what I really want, which is focus and calm. Let me learn what this situation would teach me, so that I will have the feeling state of patience as a memory and a resource.

 

 

When there are too many people around and too much energy dissipated in talking, let me learn from this to seek out solitude and give thanks whenever I meet it.

 

 

If my son goes to jail and I lie awake worrying about him, may I learn peace from knowing its opposite.  Having learned it, may I then spread peace, which blesses any situation. The pursuit of peace is an alchemy that turns all baser experiences into pure gold. It redeems.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Matthew, 5:9 

If someone dies and leaves me bereft and off-kilter, I can look within for a resource that would correct all this. I could realize that death is no more than stepping into another room; they are with us as often as we think of them. Simple as that.  I could learn that sadness is a ridiculous indulgence, a babyish reaction to the vicissitudes of this giant, endlessly evolving and mutating mechanism we call life.

After just a short practice of calling out the appropriate inner resources to match each situation, I would have a library of resources to draw from: patience, acceptance, resignation to a higher purpose, peace, a sense of perspective. It would not take me long at all to realize that I have endless inner resources, and that the more I call on them, the more are they renewed.

Epictetus is right. I would very quickly drop the idea of being overwhelmed. There would be nothing to call it forth.  I would gain equilibrium.

Balance above all