“Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.” ~ Epictetus, Ancient Greek Philosopher and Stoic

I really don’t believe there is a lot to add to this amazing insight, but I will say I have come a long way because of it. Do you have people in your life right now that you know ALWAYS tend to get under your skin and make you angry? Of course you do, we all do. Hopefully the, “becomes your master,” part of the quote is the part that got all of us thinking that we no longer want this person to be our master.

There is time between impulse and response that we get, if we choose, to decide how we respond. If we don’t decide, then our knee-jerk reaction will kick in and decide for us—and thus angry us shows up. But angry us doesn’t have to show up if we would just take the time to decide how we want to respond. This also requires us to remove our ego (another fun little exercise I have been dabbling with—more on that in another post). Our ego loves to be right and just and it wants to be in control, but, ironically, then that person becomes our master, which is surely NOT what the ego was looking for in its angry response.

If we want to be the master of ourselves we are going to have to make some tough choices. Ask yourself, “Why am I allowing this person to make me so angry?” Could I let it go? Again, here is where the ego is going to fight you. But you can also trick the ego by using Epictetus’ words—the ego will never want this person to become your master. The truth of it all is this: letting it go and not allowing this person to make you angry is for you, not them. The peace is for you and when you feel the peace, you will realize the anger wasn’t worth it. It didn’t solve anything. Counterintuitive, I know, but the Stoics figured this all out in 55 AD! This isn’t new!

Let’s GO! WE GOT THIS!

Beth