 You have power over your mind not outside events Realize this and you will find strength Marcus Aurelius To understand this quote let us put it into some context We live on a small blue planet that resides in a relatively small insignificant part of the universe There are more galaxies than grains of sand on planet Earth As vast as the universe expands outwards so does it inwards They're roughly about 50 quintillion atoms in the same grant of sand. We were just talking about What force governs all of this and what hope do us as humans have of taking control of outside events Things will happen in life that you will have no control over it doesn't matter how well prepared you are It doesn't matter how much money you have It doesn't matter how smart you are Good things will happen and devastating things will happen. You will win money. You will make friends. You will have a good time People will die People will betray you. You will lose your job It's all part of the game The only thing that we have under our control as human beings is the strength of perception The power of thought You have dominance over your own mind and you can exercise freely your will by choosing how you will interpret events Marcus Aurelius says Remove the judgment and you have removed the thought I am hurt Remove the thought I am hurt and the hurt itself is removed Understand that everything starts with perception Everything is perception Victor Frankel a holocaust survivor famously said between stimulus and response there is space And in that space is our power to choose our Response in our response lies our growth and our freedom Even after witnessing the horrors of the Holocaust he was still able to exercise his control over his mind No one can take that away from you They could take everything else away from you, but they will never be able to take that away from you only You can choose how you interpret things and what you will do Things can change around you chaos can erupt at any moment However, you can maintain your peace and serenity in your mind But the same token you could be living in excellent conditions in luxury But if you are a slave to your mind, you will never be able to enjoy it Everything is perception Things begin inwards and expand outwards and not the other way around So where will you find your strength from? Will you react impulsively to everything like a base animal or will you choose your response? When someone wrongs you will it haunt you for days. Will you bring that negativity everywhere you go? Or will you choose the path of happiness? Exercising your free will Ultimately you decide what you are going to do with your life You decide the quality of your consciousness and you decide what thoughts you are going to entertain So entertain the right ones and live good