Learn To Wrestle
“The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, because an artful life requires being prepared to meet and withstand sudden and unexpected attacks.”
Life is beautiful. It is a wonderful journey and an amazing experience. Life is also cruel and unyielding--relentless in its pursuit of destruction. Life is chaotic. And the best way to deal with this chaos is to be ready for anything that may be thrown at you. Life will happen, but how will you ALLOW it to affect you? The mind is primary. While it is important to train your body, it is imperative that you train your mind, for a strong mind is the only way to truly thrive amid the chaos. Knowing that you can control nothing but your thoughts and perceptions is the starting point. If you come to understand and accept this then you will realize you cannot control what happens to you, but you can control how you react to it. With this knowledge you can persevere through any difficulty, if you so choose. Its all up to you. This is the basis of Stoicism, and it is a skill that needs to be practiced and strengthened. Life will knock you down many times over, but do you have the mental strength to keep standing back up? I'm willing to bet that you do, you just have to unlock it. Stoic philosophy gives you the key.
Jonathan Poole