The Day After the Fall
When things go wrong, philosophy begins.
Yesterday, you were laughing with friends.
Today, you’re scrolling through an email:
“We regret to inform you…”
Setbacks rarely come announced. They ambush us in inboxes, on phone calls, through diagnoses, broken plans, and broken hearts. One moment you're fine. The next—you're knocked down.
And yet, if you zoom out just a little, this isn’t new.
It’s life.
Seneca once wrote:
“No man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity. For he is not permitted to prove himself.”
To the Stoics, setbacks were not interruptions. They were the training ground. Marcus Aurelius reminded himself each morning that the day would bring resistance, insult, and disruption—and that none of it could shake the calm within him unless he gave it permission.
The Buddhist path, too, holds a mirror to suffering. Life is dukkha—imperfect, unsatisfying, ever-changing. But the Buddha never said this to depress us. He said it to free us. When you expect the unexpected, you're not caught off guard. When you stop clinging to "how things should be," you begin accepting what is. And in that, peace arises.
But let’s go from the page to a person.
The Story of Viktor Frankl
Frankl was a psychiatrist, a husband, a thinker—and then, a prisoner in Auschwitz.
He lost everything: his family, his books, his freedom.
Yet in the midst of starvation, humiliation, and cruelty, he found a space of inner autonomy. They could take away his clothes, his name, his dignity—but not his ability to choose his attitude.
From that abyss, he wrote:
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances.”
So what do we do when the setback comes?
You breathe. You sit with the blow. You cry, if you must.
And then—you remember that this moment, too, is part of your training.
Not all days will feel equal. But every day is equally yours to respond to.
Don’t rush to fix it. Don’t numb it. Let it shape you.
Because maybe, just maybe, this setback is a quiet invitation…
…to rebuild stronger,
…to reflect deeper,
…to return wiser.