T

December    30th

TAKING  THE BITE    OUT OF  IT

“To bear    trials  with    a   calm    mind

robs    misfortune  of  its strength    and burden.”

—SENECA,    HERCULES    OETAEUS,    231–232

he people you admire, the ones who seem to be able to successfully handle and deal with adversity
and difficulty, what do they have in common? Their sense of equilibrium, their orderly discipline. On
the one-yard line, in the midst of criticism, after a heartbreaking tragedy, during a stressful period, they
keep going.
Not because they’re better than you. Not because they’re smarter. But because they have learned a
little secret. You can take the bite out of any tough situation by bringing a calm mind to it. By considering
it and meditating on it in advance.
And this is true not just for our day-to-day adversities but for the greatest and most unavoidable trial
of all: our own eventual death. It could come tomorrow, it could come in forty years. It could be quick and
painless, or it could be excruciating. Our greatest asset in that ordeal will not be religion, it will not even
be the wise words of the philosophers. It will be, simply, our calm and reasoned mind.