“So what oppresses and scares us? It is our own thoughts, obviously.” -Epictetus
A popular adage is the idea that the quality of one’s life is the quality of one’s relationships. While the value of connection and its role in our flourishing should not be diminished, the statement gives way to an externalization of our contentment, positing that its attainment rests not only on a factor outside of us, but on one known to be in a continual state of flux. Relationships change, evolve, stagnate, dissipate. We change, evolve, stagnate, dissipate. If this is true, the notion that our contentment hinges solely on the state of our connection to others at any given moment, for our sake, can’t be. What becomes significant, then, is the ability to effectively process life's transitions in a way that recognizes them as natural, both susceptible to our influence and to elements beyond it.
It’s for this reason that we can confidently anchor in the following: the quality of our life is the quality of our thinking, or more poignantly, the quality of our ability to refine our thinking.
Read more“You become what you give your attention to.” -Epictetus
We’re in an age where attention is the single most sought-after commodity. If something has our attention, it, unequivocally, has us. What we watch, what we read, who we’re around… Whatever consumes our attention consumes and shapes us. It’s essential that we understand that. If you expose yourself to enough negativity, all that you see and do will be colored as such. But of course, we know this, right? It’s the age-old garbage in, garbage out.
Though it’s not just the obvious garbage we must guard ourselves against. I’m not talking about just limiting your intake of reality tv or filthy rap music. What I’m talking about is viewing attention as a finite resource that begs for our diligent allocation and reservation, as something allotted to us that we actively distribute, or don’t distribute. I’m talking about the silent killers that we persist in focusing on, and the life-giving activities that we don’t.
In essence, we have two choices: become masters over our attention, or be mastered by the forces that fight for it.
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