He ruled the Roman Empire from 161 to 180. History books describe him as the last of the “Five Good Emperors” when Rome lived in relative peace and stability.

Marcus Aurelius was more than a leader of an estimated 90 million people. He was a philosopher of stoicism, which is a specific guide to living a happy life. Stoic ideas are very much adaptable to our lives today.

Stoicism is all about self-discipline and moral improvement. In his book, “Meditations,” Aurelius says, “You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

It has taken me a good part of my life to accept the fact that I cannot change circumstances outside of my control. As a child, I had no power to help my parents be happily married or to do anything to help my father get better from his illnesses or get my mother to start a new life after he died even though I did try.

I thought I could plan my future, but I soon found out that too was not always under my power. Accepted at a college, I had to register for the draft lottery, but call it luck or fate, I escaped going to Vietnam when my birthday number was selected beyond those that were required to enlist in the military.

I attended Rutgers University and had to commute due to financial circumstances that also forced me to work three jobs throughout the four years. l learned that while I could plan the road map of my life, the destination would be determined more so by outside events and circumstances than by the route I wanted my GPS to take me.

Yet, I was still fascinated by the stoic idea that I resort to the will of my own mind. Simply said, I cannot change the outcomes of circumstances, but I can manage the attitude I have toward these experiences.

Aurelius wrote, “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it, and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”

We worry all the time, even though our worry never affects the outcomes of stressful situations. Many times, we think of worst-case scenarios.

“She’ll be driving late at night on unfamiliar roads. What if she has an accident or her car breaks down?”

“He’s coughing a lot with this cold. I think he might have pneumonia.”

“I don’t think I have enough money to pay the bills this month.”

These may be legitimate concerns but more times than not, the results of the issues never match the high degree of our worries.

Aurelius wrote his ideas 1850 years ago, and here’s one that hits home with us right now. “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”

Finding truth now is as rare as discovering a four-leaf clover in a football sized field. All too often we take opinion as fact; we hear the same lies over and over again until we accept the lies as truth. It’s too bad that the fictional character, Pinocchio isn’t real to every human being. There’d be an awful lot of long noses out there!

The stoics believe that “The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.”

When I stroll through TV movies to watch, I see that many have plots of revenge. Somebody gets hurt. That somebody searches for the avengers, and we know the ending. He finds them and destroys them. I suppose that in our minds we fantasize about hurting others who have hurt us. The difficult decision, but the best thing would be is to walk away and remove the pain within us.

“Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?”

We are quick to judge, but we resent being judged and this has biblical roots — he who is without sin shall cast the first stone.

“When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own — not of the same blood and birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are unnatural.”

Easy to say by the Stoics. Hard to put into action. Those who put this advice into play have one step up on preserving peace of mind.

Some final words from Marcus Aurelius. “Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what’s left and live it properly. What doesn’t transmit light creates its own darkness. Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars and see yourself running with them.”

Nearly two thousand years ago, this Emperor of Rome looked up at the same night sky filled with the same stars we see today. In that manner, time stands still for a moment to remind us that the quest for happiness back then is the same as it is now.

Email Rich Strack at richiesadie11@gmail.com