“Average people think that anything helpful or harmful comes from others. Extraordinary people know that help and harm are only found within ourselves.” — Epictetus
There’s nothing wrong with seeking help from others. But Epictetus reminds us that we’re already equipped with every tool we need to fix the challenges that life sends our way.
And his advice goes much deeper than that.
It’s not just help that can be found exclusively in ourselves, but also harm. Most “bad” situations are only harmful to us because we decide that they’re harmful.
Does that mean we can just choose to not feel pain from an injury or loss? Of course not. But we can choose to use those experiences to better ourselves and the world around us.
You really can decide that challenging experiences — no matter how unpleasant they are — aren’t allowed to harm you.