I

March   8th

DON’T   UNINTENTIONALLY HAND    OVER    YOUR    FREEDOM

“If a   person  gave    away    your    body    to  some    passerby,   you’d   be  furious.    Yet you hand    over    your

mind    to  anyone  who comes   along,  so  they    may abuse   you,    leaving it  disturbed   and troubled—

have    you no  shame   in  that?”

—EPICTETUS, ENCHIRIDION,     28

nstinctively, we protect our physical selves. We don’t let people touch us, push us around, control
where we go. But when it comes to the mind, we’re less disciplined. We hand it over willingly to
social media, to television, to what other people are doing, thinking, or saying. We sit down to work and
the next thing you know, we’re browsing the Internet. We sit down with our families, but within minutes
we have our phones out. We sit down peacefully in a park, but instead of looking inward, we’re judging
people as they pass by.
We don’t even know that we’re doing this. We don’t realize how much waste is in it, how inefficient
and distracted it makes us. And what’s worse—no one is making this happen. It’s totally self-inflicted.
To the Stoics, this is an abomination. They know that the world can control our bodies—we can be
thrown in jail or be tossed about by the weather. But the mind? That’s ours. We must protect it. Maintain
control over your mind and perceptions, they’d say. It’s your most prized possession.