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Always put yourself in a situation where you can control your circumstances!
We can only control our reactions and attitudes to what happens to us.
We cannot control the actual events.
Learn the difference.
Other animals give us a lesson in self-control: the cat, for instance, whose wisdom is a model because it combines the most intent passion with the calmest indifference. Motionless it plans its leap, and performs it exactly; the strength of its muscles is matched by its relaxation in repose; in sleep it has the abandon of an infant, yet its instinct is ever alert; it can fall without danger because it does not resist; hunting and fighting are games of pure pleasure for it, it hunts with rancor and plays without an object; it is ever ready to attack without animosity, and to defend itself without apprehension; being indifferent to victory, it cannot feel defeat.
Serenity comes from independence.
This independence, to be created in oneself, is not indifference, but neutrality with regard to the impressions received from without – whether pretty or ugly, good or bad, happy or sad, pleasant or unpleasant. It is one thing to observe these qualities and quite another to let them affect our moods.
Real peace comes only to those who control the body and mind with self-discipline.
...to tune the spirit when someone is trampling on you is called control
When force of circumstance upsets your equanimity lose no time in recovering your self-control, and do not remain out of tune longer than you can help. Habitual recurrence to the harmony will increase your mastery of it.
