Your Mind vs Your Circumstances — The Enchiridion

Epictetus draws a line between what limits the body and what limits the will. Sickness is an impediment to the body, he says, but not to the will unless the will itself consents. The same split applies to lameness: it hampers the leg, not the inner power to choose.

The middle move is to generalize the rule. Say this to yourself with regard to everything that happens. Most blows look total because we treat them as attacks on the whole self when they are usually attacks on one function, one plan, one comfort.

The closing test is precise. You will find the event to be an impediment to something else, but not truly to yourself. That does not deny pain or disability. It locates the block: the body, the schedule, the budget, not the faculty that decides what you do with what remains.