Epictetus
"We are disturbed not by events, but by the views which we take of them."
- Epictetus
This statement was quoted by my classmate in his conclusion for his presentation on stress during our Organisational Behaviour Seminar. Taking the statement as a secular philosophical one, I felt that it bore so much truth in it.
Often, it is not events or persons or our environment per se that causes us stress or to be distraught, but our perception of these events and of our past that produces these effects.
This leads me to reflect on recent events and my perspectives of things.
My room mate, who is my confidant for 5 years, currently takes the relatively few modules and has few commitments, spends every available moment studying and is waning in his enthusiasm towards our event committee.
Well, I could be unaffected by his lack of social life or his unsatiable drive for academic success or his apparent indifference towards our event committee.
However, I was disturbed by my perspective of things. He was zealous in his search for sponsors for our event last semester and I had expectations on him that he will be equally fervent this semester in regards to our event commitments. However, this semester, his choice to study non-stop resulted in my unmet expectations and further led to much anger and frustration with the situation.
I guess I also chose to let his non-stop studying stress me out due to my lack, in comparision, of effort in my studies.
Seriously, I think that it's not so much the person or the events that is our stressor, but rather, our perception of things.
Labels: Perspectives for Thought
