\"'Mind over matter' is a powerful expression. Your ability to consciously control your mindset is what makes you mentally tough and ready for life’s challenges. The secret to achieving this resilient state lies in taking control of your thoughts and allowing your thoughts to control your behaviors, not the other way around. Your ability to take control of your emotional responses and live a stoic-inspired life is the secret to success, to your happiness, and to your improved well-being. When you are able to see situations as opportunities and emotional responses as conscious choices—when you realize things don’t happen to you but rather with you—your outlook completely changes. How you see your situation affects and influences how you feel about that situation. You are not merely a byproduct of your circumstances. You are a choosing being who has the ability to determine your emotional responses, which in turn shapes how you view the world, yourselves, and others. But learning to change your perspectives takes practice—practice which will in turn help increase your self-confidence. By practicing cognitive restructuring, you can retrain your brain and create new habits that will make you the master of any situation. When choosing how you feel and react becomes your choice, you will feel more in control. “Don’t hope that events will turn out the way you want, welcome events in whichever way they happen: this is the path to peace.\" —Epictetus