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I am pretty sure that each and everyone deems his or herself as a strong person. But exactly is this strength we are talking about?

Many people see strength as a feature of the body. Strong muscles, quick reflexes, all this make a strong person. This is a good perception as a strong body has a one-on-one advantage against a weaker one. However, relying on this kind of strength means that you are also relying on chance building such a chain of events that will put you against someone in such a manner that only physical strength is relevant. However, in life there are very few such situations, when dealing with educated people. Also, such a consideration would put you in the position where you solely rely on genetics since a strong body is always conditioned by the genetic inheritance and the absence of degenerative disease.

Another aspect that most others agree on is mind strength, the so-called concept of mind over matter. In this theory, the mind holds all power: it can help you gain the upper hand in almost all situations by providing the reasoning ability to help you prevent any disadvantageous situations and even give physical boosts every now and then.

However mind-power is a tricky concept. It’s a proven thing that a mind is an extremely powerful thing but it can be both a powerful tool or a powerful enemy. Logic dictates that in other to always have the mind as a tool, you must be sure at any given moment that you yourself are controlling the mind and not have the mind control you (when speaking about “you”, I mean the ego, the self-persona not the body, mind, soul, or any singular component of a person).

Given this we arrive at the question of what is strength when related to mind? Let me pose a simple question that any teenager faces sooner or later: when a path is beset upon you by an exterior force (aka the parents) what is true strength? The strength to pursue this path and recognizing that you yourself have not the means to take the path on your own right now? Or is it strength to rebel against the tyranny and dictatorship that tries to impose an outside will against a self-determined being? This is no easy question but when considering strength (and what we mentioned above about mastering the mind) things might make matters a little simpler. Given our quest for strength, we must look to act against our mind, against impulses, not giving in to them, but mastering them, turning them into our tools that we can use to gain greater advantage. When mind is concerned, the only opponent we have is our own mind. An untamed mind is a great disadvantage since it can lead on to random paths, paths that will throw us away from our goals, throw us into pain, confusion and darkness, throw us into unseen chains.

The only chains we have to fear are those chains that are not to be seen. Many times have I seen hurt people, searching for a way out, but always sinking back into a prison built by their own mind, a prison that tells them trying to escape is useless because they can never escape. It’s the same prison any tyranny uses against it’s people, fear and concealing the fact that something better is right at hand. It’s the mind, the prison takes away your mind, locking it into a room of mirrors, never letting you use it to find the way out.

A trapped mind will never see a hand reaching out to it, it will become blind to those around and to a concept of strength that still eludes many: the strength to fight pride and accept help.

Now, I want you all to repeat after me:
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”