{"id":1531,"date":"2024-02-09T17:35:56","date_gmt":"2024-02-10T01:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/?p=1531"},"modified":"2024-02-09T17:35:57","modified_gmt":"2024-02-10T01:35:57","slug":"everybody-has-an-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/the-daily-stoic\/02\/09\/everybody-has-an-opinion\/","title":{"rendered":"Everybody Has an Opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“We have the power to hold no opinion about a thing and to not let it upset our state of mind \u2014 for things have no natural power to shape our judgments.”<\/p>MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS<\/em>, 6.52<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

What about all the things you’re not even aware of? Things that you don’t even know<\/em> about, that were out of sight & out of mind? Things that might have affected you, but you just completely missed them? You don’t have an opinion about those things at all<\/em>, because you don’t know about them. That’s the point made in today’s chapter of The Daily Stoic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And consider the freedom you have, by not<\/em> knowing about those things, and not<\/em> being burdened with forming an opinion about them! The absolute liberation from anxiety that comes by not<\/em> thinking about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In today’s internet age, we’ve come to think that we need to be experts on everything<\/a>, and absorb all the information coming at us. Further, social media has convinced us that our opinions are really important. I was talking about this with a friend recently \u2014 fifteen years ago, we all had opinions but we usually kept them to ourselves… because “who cares what I think?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now Facebook and Twitter and Instagram have persuaded and coaxed us into thinking that our opinion is supremely<\/em> important, and worth shouting & arguing from the rooftops at random strangers<\/a>. Everybody has an opinion<\/strong> now, they’re like assh\u2014 well, you know the saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But you don’t have<\/em> to have an opinion, because you’re no puppet<\/a> and you’re not being pulled by strings against your will. It’s okay to have no opinion at all, in fact! And it’s okay to be completely clueless<\/a> on other topics. By not having an opinion, these things will lose their power over you, and you’ll find yourself freer and happier as a result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone has an opinion on everything \u2014 but is that really required? You don’t need to have an opinion on all topics, and you’ll be happier without one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[282,792,763,678,793,26,25,762,701,251,39],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1531"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2483,"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531\/revisions\/2483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}