By Sigrid Shun

NORTHLINK: How do you keep your mind free from all troubles?

The word ‘free’ is often associated with the following positive emotions:

• Feelings of freedom, liberty, and independence
• A sense of being unconstrained, unrestricted, and unrestrained

To achieve these positive emotions, I recently learned about the Stoic Challenge by William B. Irvine. If Stoicism were summarized in one command, it would be: stop worrying about things that are out of your control. The only thing we can control is our response to adversity. We don’t have control over what happens to us, but we do have control over how we respond to it. The Stoics thought that we could reduce the emotional cost of setbacks by using the test strategy. The idea is that we should treat setbacks as a test of our resilience and resourcefulness as if they were designed by Stoic gods to challenge us. So next time a setback comes your way, pause for 5 seconds. Tell yourself, “pagsubok lang ito.” Ask yourself: “How can I turn this setback into an opportunity? How can I turn this setback into a stepping stone?” and eventually, find your freedom.