Hello and welcome to Navigate the Day. Today is January 13th, actually Friday the 13th, and we're in the month of clarity.Which is part of the discipline of perception. And these meditations and journaling prompts.Are based on the Daily Stoic. The Book and companion journal. From Ryan Holiday. I'm not an affiliate for him or anything
like that. I'm just using the knowledge that he had and what he filtered down and passed along to me to be able to kind of give my two cents in my opinion on these journaling prompts to to myself in the future. With that being said, I'll go ahead and jump into today's theme, which is the circle of control. We've got a excerpt here. We control our reasoned choice and all the acts that depend on that moral will.What's not under our control?Are the body
and any of its parts.Our possessions, parents, siblings, children, or country. Anything with which we might associate.Epictetus Discourses 1.22 dot 10. And like I said, these prompts and whatnot are pulled from The Daily Stoic. And today's prompt is what can I put outside my circle of control? Before knowing what I can put outside my circle of control.I have to firstly know what's inside it. According to the stoics it contains only one thing.
The mind.When Epictetus says what's not under our control are the body and any of its parts, he's not wrong as soon as you give it some thought.We do not control our physical well-being. We can become ill or be involved in an accident or natural disaster.And the one that affects us all, and not only can it not be controlled, it also cannot be stopped aging. That last one, I still sometimes have trouble coping with myself.Of course, family, our parents and siblings alike.
Are out of our control.Environment kind of feels iffy to me. I can see how initially our environment is not within our control and on some levels I see it as true later in life. However.I have had the control to do something about my environment. Which, as I say this, I realized that my mind was what was really stopping me from action.So the problem wasn't that my surroundings were working against me.It was that I wasn't working against my surroundings. Reason being I wasn't focused on
controlling the right way.I didn't have the experiences or knowledge that I do now.I wasn't taking hold.Of the one thing in my circle of control, my mind. Thankfully, at this season of my life, I'm more aware of this ability.And I'm better able to build necessary skills to master the art of living. Of course, I still have my less than perfect moments.And that's going to have to be OK, because that's life. So what can and maybe should I remove from my circle of control?I need to let
go of my fear of aging. I recently realized how thinning my hair is becoming, and I panicked for a minute. And now that it happened, I'm finding myself letting go of the idea.I have any governance over the way my body ages after, well, hundreds of years of the same thing happening to every other living thing.I have to remember that this too is part of life and vice surrendering, surrendering to
it. I can enjoy it more.I can choose to remain calm when challenged with new or recurring feelings, doubts and negative self talk. I'm excited to implement all of the things I'm learning into my daily life as I move forward. I'm also realizing that I don't have to. I don't have a say in how my siblings behave. That has been realization for a while, I suppose, but now I'm just starting to let go of it for my sake and theirs. All I control is my mind. What else can I shove out of my sphere
of choice?How my girlfriend feels all I can do is choose to respond to her feelings and not be reactive because that comes from a place of impulse and lack of control. Which is unfair to her.She deserves to be able to trust that I mean what I say, and I cannot if I come from a place of emotionally charged thoughts that aren't from a position of clarity and reason choice. I hope that by practicing better listening skills I can become closer to her and everyone else around me.
I hope that by practicing listening to myself through journaling like this.It makes my ability to listen even stronger. I need to push my incorrect assumption that my financial state is something I control.A lot of outside factors play into my finances.The economy of my state and city are not mine to control. I don't control the recession that seems to be affecting people these days.And I'm deciding to focus on learning to embrace all of this new, or
at least clearer knowledge.That it's actually good that all of this is outside of my control.Well, everyone else's worried with a mile long list of responsibilities and practicing clarity brought on by simplicity. If all I control are my mind, my will, and my choices.I can focus more wholly on those few things in my control and not feel as overwhelmed by how much is out of it.I can just settle into my friendly and welcoming sphere that reminds me of how
much I do and don't control.And this needs to be a practice that I keep daily.That's all I have for today.I feel good about getting these thoughts out.Thank you for taking the time to let me ramble. Stay safe and until next time. I wish you the best and know you can handle the worst. Peace and love, friend.