yogalifeworks

The Greek philosopher, Epictetus, (55-135 C.E.) stated that people are not disturbed by the actual things that happen, but by their opinions of the things that happen.

The author of these words, Epictetus, was a former slave who became a renowned philospher in ancient Greece—he went from being treated as property to owning his own thoughts and feelings. What about us— do we choose to remain a slave to our opinions, assumptions and expectations or do we choose to drop our “position” and move on?

The other day, I was driving in a car with a close relative who repeated a story that i’ve heard many times over and over again in the past. Hearing the same recycled story, I became agitated and impatient with the person, with thoughts running through my head like: “oh, no, not this again,” “this is a waste of time.” I began judging the person and the story. I made this person wrong for telling the story and hearing the story was becoming unbearable. The inner fire was building.

Then I managed to catch myself before I boiled over with some fiery reaction. This person wasn’t the cause of my mental impatience; the recycled story wasn’t the culprit either. It was the way that I was reacting to the story. I was creating my own agitation, caught in my personal opinion about the story and having to hear it again.

Once I realized this, I laughed to myself and I heard the rest of the story without judging or reacting. It was just a story. How many times do we lose our perspective, and give something so much power through the workings of our mind that it causes us to lose balance? Perhaps everything is just a story that can’t touch our Inner state, if we choose not to let it.