You Have Power Over Your Mind

“You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” — Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius wrote those words in Meditations nearly two thousand years ago, but they strike just as hard today. The emperor wasn’t giving some abstract lesson from a throne; he was reminding himself, in the middle of war and politics, that control is an illusion outside the walls of our own mind. The only real power we hold is over our judgments, our choices, and our attitudes.

What’s in Our Control

The Stoics were drawing a line between what’s “up to us” and what’s not. It sounds simple, almost too simple, until you actually try it.

• The weather? Not up to us.
• What people think of us? Not up to us.
• Fortune, fate, chance, the economy, the score of the game? Not up to us.

But our reaction to those things? That’s in our domain—that’s where our free will comes into play. We don’t get to stop the storm, but we do get to decide if we’ll curse the rain or plant the seed.

The Strength of Restraint

When Marcus says we’ll “find strength,” he isn’t talking about brute force or pushing people around. He’s pointing to the kind of strength that can’t be taken away: resilience, composure, clarity. The strength to hold your ground when life tilts sideways. The strength to laugh when insulted, to stay calm when provoked, to be steady when everyone else is losing their footing.

That’s a deeper strength than muscles or titles. It’s a kind of inner fortress.

How It Shows Up Today

Think about modern life:

• You can’t control what your boss dumps on your desk, but you can control how you approach the work.
• You can’t control if the market crashes, but you can control whether you panic or hold steady.
• You can’t control if someone cuts you off in traffic, but you can control whether you let it ruin your mood for the next hour.

That’s Marcus’s message in motion: freedom through focus on what’s yours to command.

A Hard but Worthwhile Practice

Of course, it’s not easy. Knowing something and living it are two different things. The temptation is always to try to wrestle with the world, to force outcomes, to stew over what others think. Marcus knew this—that’s why he had to keep reminding himself.

Strength comes in practicing that separation, day after day. Some days you’ll nail it, some days you’ll slip. But every time you step back and remind yourself, “This part is mine, that part is not,” you’re building the muscle of resilience.

Closing Thought

We spend so much of life trying to control what we can’t. Marcus Aurelius points us back to the only battlefield we can actually win: our own mind. Master that, and the storms of life lose their power.

That’s real strength.