“Every event has two handles – one by which it can be carried, and one by which it can’t. If your brother does you wrong, don’t grab it by his wrongdoing, because this is the handle incapable of lifting it. Instead, use the other – that he is your brother, that you were raised together, and then you will have hold of the handle that carries.” Epictetus, Enchiridion.
We have control over our conscious choices. We can choose knowingly to run with our emotions and allow our thoughts to be clouded by emotional thinking: labelling things as all good or all bad, reading people’s minds, telling your fortune and catastrophising over future events, while filtering out any sliver of evidence that suggests that things might not be that bad after all. Yes, your emotions tell you a wrong or an injustice or a disappointment has occurred, but the ball is now in your court: how do you choose to continue?
