Why the mind should be your most prized possession.

And how to truly value it.

Unsplash — Sudharsanan Muralidharan

“What’s left to be prized? This I think-to limit our action or inaction to only what’s keeping with the needs of our own preparation…it’s what the exertions of education and teaching are all about — here is the thing to be prized! If you hold this firmly, you’ll stop trying to get yourself all the other things…If you don’t, you won’t be free, self sufficient, or liberated from passion, but necessarily full of envy, jealously, and you’ll plot against those who do have what you prize… But by having some self-respect for your own mind and prizing it, you will please yourself and be in better harmony with your fellow human beings, and more in tune with the gods, praising everything they have set in order and allotted you. — Marcus Aurelius

It’s hard seeing everything in front of you and remembering that your circumstances come once in a lifetime.

They are unique to you and only you, what you have no one else does and the same goes for material possessions.

Amongst these things is your mind which usually is forgotten about. When in reality the mind is the one thing that should be cherished the most.

For the mind helps us develop into the person we someday hope to become, steers us away from negative thoughts and guides us towards beneficial situations.

With that being said, we must appreciate our minds and the position we are in, no matter what that state is.

Constant comparisons of your life against someone else is an empty act, it will leave you feeling envious or jealous which does not benefit your life in the slightest.

Instead, by practicing appreciation you develop self respect and realize you have people, things and most of all a mind to be thankful for right at this very moment.