Epictetus Stoic teachings
Epictetus: Why call on heaven to remove your trouble?…
Why call on heaven to remove your trouble? Were you not given hands? Wipe your own nose rather than hunting for someone to blame.
A paraphrase of a teaching associated with Epictetus, written for modern readers. Not a transcription of a copyrighted edition.
There may be real reasons for your situation: an unfair policy, another person's mistake, bad timing, or plain misfortune. Naming those causes can be useful. Living inside them as an explanation for inaction is not. Separate the part you cannot alter from the smallest useful step you can take. Send the form. Make the appointment. Ask for information. Put aside a little money. Learn the skill that gives you more options. None of these actions erase injustice, but they return some energy to your hands. Complaining can briefly relieve pressure, yet it rarely repairs the broken thing. Take your frustration seriously enough to use it as fuel rather than as a home. Today, whenever you hear yourself rehearsing how helpless you are, add one question: what resource, choice, or effort is available to me right now? Begin there.
Related passages
- Epictetus Who is unconquerable? The person whom nothing outside a considered choice can throw into disorder.
- Marcus Aurelius Whatever others say or do, I am bound to goodness—like gold or an emerald that keeps its own color regardless of what…
- Marcus Aurelius Why should imprudent unlearned souls trouble that which is both learned, and prudent? And which is that that is so?…