Marcus Aurelius
Of all the emotions that moved me today, which were actually within my control?
📝ONGO's Reflection
From the highest seat of an empire, he wrote the loneliest of journals. The Meditations were not written for publication but as letters to himself. That is precisely why they sound so close. Whenever I face a decision, one of his sentences rises up: "It is not the event that angers you, but your judgment about the event." That single sentence has saved half of my day more times than I can count. It is the greatest gift Marcus Aurelius left us — not as an emperor, but as one man.
"If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. And it is in your power to wipe out this judgment now."Marcus Aurelius, Meditations VIII.47
🌱Apply It Today
Recall one moment today that made you angry, and separate whether the cause was "the event itself" or "my interpretation of it." It is almost always the latter. Simply knowing this makes the next anger smaller.
