“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.