“Things have no hold on the soul. They standing unmoving, outside it. Disturbances come only from within–from our own perceptions . . . The world is nothing but change. Our life is only perception.”

The words of Marcus Aurelius always touch me, and these in particular. I find that life is chaos when we let the world affect us unchecked. We wake up every day and are bombarded with information, most of it negative, and for the unguarded mind it is like heat onto delicate grass–it sucks it dry. The mind is the most powerful tool in the world. It is our greatest faculty. But at teh same time it is delicate, and it is up to us, its steward, to guard it from that which would make it less than it can be.

Nothing that happens beyond ourselves affects us unless we let it. Our mind decodes every event and assigns a reaction, and tough some of this is automatic, primordial, most is merely a habit we ourselves have created. We can change how we perceive the world. We can alter our reactions to things. We must only be aware and take daily action on refining our minds, focusing, and being vigilant for the incursions of the outer world. It can be done, and though I will not tell anyone how to live, I saw for myself that it MUST be done. Life is what we make it. And our minds make our lives.

So stand guard at the door of your mind. It is far more precious than a vault of gold–because it is the tool that created those things in the first place.

Nurture your mind. Nurture your life.

Always.