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About This Author
My name is Joy, and I love to write. Why poetry, here? Because poetry uplifts its writer, and if she is lucky enough, her readers, too. Around us, so many objects abound to write about. Once a poet starts with a smallest, most trivial object, he shall discover that his pen will spill out what is most delicate or most majestic hidden inside him. Since the classics sometimes dealt with lofty subjects with a lofty language, a person with poetry in his soul may incline to emulate that. That is understandable. Poetry does that to a person: it enlarges the soul and gives it wings. Yet, to really soar, a poet needs to take off from the ground. Kiya's gift. I love it!
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#1105748 added January 11, 2026 at 12:29pm
Restrictions: None
About My Power (!) over My Mind
Prompt:
"You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."
Marcus Aurelius

How much power do you have over your mind? Do you wish you could control it 100%?


-----

I've always loved the Stoics, despite their at-times-rigid standards. As such, this quote is unsettling and comforting at the same time.

Is Aurelius saying we have power over our minds and not outside anything? Double-edged sword, here, I think.

First, he is denying pain, loss or injustice. Also, weather, chance, other people's actions and choices, and our own bodies influence and defy us, mostly. This also pokes holes in the high wall Aurelius builds between a person and the outside world.

That said, forget about the world for a second, so I can talk about my own unruly mind. No, I don't have absolute power over my silly mind. Thoughts, memories, snippets of events from the latest few days, things people have said or done or wrote rise uninvited, especially when I am busy doing something else. Imagine writing something or talking to someone about an important thing and the mind wanders away. Some such things I can shoo away, but others insist. Then, some thoughts jump up uninvited and I may even get emotional.

Do you think I want to feel fear, grief, and anger over something in the past that I've endured or fear about something stupid in the future that my mind has conjured up? Nope, and I don't think anyone else does either.

Still, I do believe in the Stoics' stance. This is because the power Aurelius is talking about is realistic and subtle. This power doesn't really prevent my pushy thoughts from suddenly jumping up and appearing, but I might exert some control over which ones I might choose to give importance to. Or I can reframe the thought and let it pass. Strength, if or when I have it, is in me thinking, “This happened, but it does not get to define me,” or “This feeling, possibility, or memory is real, but it is not the whole truth.”

Having said that, I wish I did have a mind that I could have trained to stop butting in or to separate what it can influence. Truth is, I can't control my mind 100%, but possibly, no one can theirs.

Then, just maybe, I am gaining power over it because I realize the limits of my control. Well, at least, that!







© Copyright 2026 Joy- Happy 2026! (UN: joycag at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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