H

February    9th

YOU DON’T   HAVE    TO  HAVE    AN  OPINION

“We have    the power   to  hold    no  opinion about   a   thing   and to  not let it  upset   our state   of  mind—for

things  have    no  natural power   to  shape   our judgments.”

—MARCUS AURELIUS,   MEDITATIONS,    6.52

ere’s a funny exercise: think about all the upsetting things you don’t know about—stuff people might
have said about you behind your back, mistakes you might have made that never came to your
attention, things you dropped or lost without even realizing it. What’s your reaction? You don’t have one
because you don’t know about it.
In other words, it is possible to hold no opinion about a negative thing. You just need to cultivate that
power instead of wielding it accidentally. Especially when having an opinion is likely to make us
aggravated. Practice the ability of having absolutely no thoughts about something—act as if you had no
idea it ever occurred. Or that you’ve never heard of it before. Let it become irrelevant or nonexistent to
you. It’ll be a lot less powerful this way.