Never Casually Discuss Important Matters Take care not to casually discuss matters that are of great importance to you with people who are not important to you. Your affairs will become drained of preciousness. You undercut your own purposes when you do this. This is especially dangerous when you are in the early stages of an undertaking. Other people feast like vultures on our ideas. They take it upon themselves to blithely interpret, judge, and twist what matters most of you, and your heart sinks. Let your ideas and plans incubate before you parade them in front of the naysayers and trivializers. Most people o

Take Care of Your Body Respect your body’s needs. Give you body excellent care to promote its health and well being. Give it everything it absolutely requires, including healthy food and drink, dignified clothing, and a warm and comfortable home. Do not, however, use your body as an occasion for show or luxury.

No One Can Hurt You People don’t have the power to hurt you. Even if someone shouts abuse at you or strikes you, if you are insulted, it is always your choice to view what is happening as insulting or not. If someone irritates you, it is only your own response that is irritating you. Therefore, when anyone seems to be provoking you, remember that it is only your judgment of the incident that provokes you. Don’t let your emotions get ignited by mere appearances. Try not to merely react in the moment. Pull back from the situation. Take a wider view; compose yourself.

Exercise Caution When Mingling With Others One of two things will happen when you socialize with others. You either become like your companions, or you bring them over to your own ways. Just as when a dead coal contacts a live one, either the first will extinguish the last, or the last kindle the first. Great is the danger; so be circumspect on entering into personal associations, even and especially light-hearted ones. Most of us do not possess sufficiently developed steadfastness to steer our companions to our own purpose, so we end up being carried along by the crowd. Our own values and ideals become fuzzy and tai

Be Grateful Practice having a grateful attitude and you will be happy. If you take a broad view of what befalls each person and appreciate the usefulness of things that happen, it is natural to give thanks to the Ultimate for everything that happens in the world.

Make Full Use of What Happens to You Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own submerged inner resources. The trials we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths. Prudent people look beyond the incident itself and seek to form the habit of putting it to good use. On the occasion of an accidental event, don’t just react in a haphazard fashion: Remember to turn inward and ask what resources you have for dealing with it. Dig deeply. You possess strengths you might not realize you have. Find the right one. Use it. If you encounter an attractive person,

-039_Events Don^t Hurt Us, But Our Views of Them Can.htm Events Don’t Hurt Us, But Our Views of Them Can Things themselves don’t hurt or hinder us. Nor do other people. How we view these things is another matter. It is our attitudes and reactions that give us trouble. We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.

Harmonize Your Actions with the Way Life Is It is not so much what you are doing, but how you are doing it. When we properly understand and live by this principle, while difficulties will arise – for they are part of the divine order too – inner peace will still be possible.

About Art of Living How do I live a happy, meaningful, and flourishing life? How can I be both noble and effective person? Answering these bedrock questions was the single-minded passion of Epictetus, the venerable philosopher who was born a slave about A.D.55 in the eastern outreaches of the Roman Empire. One of the wittiest and wisest teachers who ever lived, Epictetus observed that everyday life, no matter what our personal circumstances are, is fraught with difficulty. Still, the life of virtue is within the reach of everyone. The razor-sharp instructions that make up The Art of Living encaps

Be Careful About the Company You Keep Regardless of what others profess, they may not truly live by spiritual values. Be careful who you associate with. It is human to imitate the habits of those with whom we interact. We inadvertently adopt their interests, their opinions, their values, and their habit of interpreting events. Though many people mean well, they can just the same have a deleterious influence on you because they are undisciplined about what is worthy and what isn’t. Just because some people are nice to you doesn’t means you should spend time with them. Just because they seek you out and are interested in