Christmas Eve Meditations.
Whatever your belief system; or, even if you don't have one, each of us is human, and we all come from the same gene pool. There is only one path to peace, harmony and happiness. Sadly, some of us won't walk that path. We can't do anything about that. But, we can resolve to be the best human being we can be. And, we each have the power to do that. So, lord and lady lawyers, are you an agent of change or are you not mindful of your place in the world? Here are my daily goals. I get to decide whether I live by them. They are thousands of years old, and they are just as relevant today. What will you do with today?
1 Cling tooth and nail to the following rule: Not to give in to adversity, never to trust prosperity, and always to take full note of fortune’s habit of behaving just as she pleases, treating her as if she were actually going to do everything it is in her power to do. Whatever you have been expecting for some time comes as less of a shock.—Seneca
2. Know, that many of the things you hold to be important are only relatively important. Know that you are only relatively important.
3. People seek retreats for themselves in the countryside by the seashore, in the hills, and you too have made it your habit to long for that above all else. But this is altogether unphilosophical, when it is possible for you to retreat into yourself whenever you please; for nowhere can one retreat into greater peace or freedom from care than within one’s own soul, especially when a person has such things within him that he merely has to look at them to recover from that moment perfect ease of mind (and by ease of mind I mean nothing other than having one’s mind in good order). So constantly grant yourself this retreat and so renew yourself; but keep within you concise and basic precepts that will be enough, at first encounter, to cleanse you from all distress and to send you back without discontent to the life to which you will return.—Marcus Aurelius
4. You are not disturbed by events, but by your opinion about events. Everything is constantly changing and there is nothing you can do about it. You will not live forever. Epictetus.
5. Ask yourself the following question: What would I do if money was not an issue? Then go and do just that.
6. At the end of each day, remind yourself that this day has finished and there is nothing you can now do to change it. Accept everything that has happened, whether good or bad.
7. Negative visualization is a simple exercise that can remind us how lucky we are. The premise is simple, just imagine that bad things have happened, or that good things have not. While you may think that this type of pessimism is not conducive to a happy and fulfilling life, it can actually turn your life into pure gold by making you realize that all these bad things have not happened to you. Seneca.
8. Train yourself not to desire things that are outside of your control. Remember that we can only control our thoughts and our actions. Remember that you should grasp everything in life loosely, just like sand. You don’t hold sand tightly, otherwise it escapes your grasp.