Lawyers have plenty of reasons to feel overwhelmed these days. Beyond taking on our clients’ problems as our own, technology is roiling the bar, and the courts and politics feels more contentious than ever, sowing anxiety and uncertainty in an already-stressed profession.

But in the face of these challenges, we still have responsibilities: to our clients, to our families and those who depend on us, and to ourselves. We have to make progress on professional and personal projects, even when things don’t go our way. But how exactly are you supposed to be resilient when it feels like everything is falling apart?

Fortunately, there is precedent to help answer this question, including the writings of Marcus Aurelius, who ruled the Roman Empire from A.D. 161 to A.D. 180. He was also a student of Stoic philosophy and wrote notes to himself on how to live a meaningful life, which are published under the title Meditations.

Though ancient, Aurelius’ advice has present-day application. Stoicism is at the root of cognitive behavioral therapy, and its principles overlap with mindfulness practice. Each of these frameworks provides tools for managing stress and resolving everyday difficulties in life, which should free up time and energy for you to address larger, more serious problems, and Meditations shows these tools in action.

One of the many topics Meditations addresses is resilience—how to respond to adversity. The following passages from Meditations illustrate four key Stoic concepts—control, presence, perception and recovery—that can help modern attorneys build resilience. (The quoted passages below are from a translation of Meditations by Gregory Hays, New York: Modern Library, 2003).

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