Accountability
The beautiful thing about Stoic philosophy is the advice contained within it is just as applicable today as it was when it was first written all those many years ago. We can learn a great deal from interpreting the advice provided and using it to our advantage as we go throughout our own lives.
Today’s quote comes to us courtesy of Epictetus, Enchiridion, entry V:
Quote
“So whenever we are frustrated, or troubled, or pained, let us never hold anyone responsible except ourselves, meaning our own opinions.”
Advice
Stoic philosophy teaches its practitioners about the need to shift perspective and examine the judgments we place on events. Epictetus taught his students of the need to not place blame where blame did not belong.
Epictetus’ goal in advising his students to “never hold anyone responsible except ourselves” was to explain to them the need to examine the judgments and opinions they were placing on events. If we become “frustrated, or troubled, or pained” with something, it is not the thing itself that brings about those feelings, its our judgments of the event that has aroused the emotions within us.
Epictetus preached that if we can change our mind, we can change of thought process.
This was exactly how Aaron T. Beck, the founder of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), came to create CBT. Beck, having studied and read Epictetus, believed that through reason and logic, one could change their mental state.
As I wrote about in our most recent Monday Meditations, it is about changing our perspective that helps to create a different mental state. Here are a few examples:
Reactive: “That’s a stupid idea.”
Reflective: “They’re just trying to help.”
Reactive: “How dare he think he can know what I am going through.”
Reflective: “Maybe they have insight into this I don’t know of.”
Reactive: “That was a stupid act. I’d never do that.”
Reflective: “They’re human just like me. Have I ever done something like that?”
Examine your thoughts. Find the faulty logic. Reframe the problem. Change your thoughts.
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