“Who then is invincible? The one who cannot be upset by anything outside their reasoned choice.”

In other words, just through learning how to rest my attention very lightly on the sensory information I was receiving, and disengaging from the emotional or intellectual content normally associated with the sounds he was making, he couldn’t hurt me. And by being able to listen to him nondefensively, I found myself open enough to respond in a way

Here is Epictetus, in the first century CE, lamenting the human tendency to let others control our emotions: If your body was turned over to just anyone, you would doubtless take exception. Why aren’t you ashamed that you have made your mind vulnerable to anyone who happens to criticize you, so that it automatically becomes confused and upset?19