42 How to Deal with Stress Centuries later, Shakespeare proffered a similar sentiment: [T]here is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Hamlet II.ii So what was their solution to dealing with stressful situations? Marcus Aurelius, a second-century Roman emperor and stoic philosopher, suggested that our internal `assessor' could be challenged: Refuse its assessment, and all is well... Everything is what your opinion makes it; and that opinion lies with yourself.Renounce it when you will, and at once you have rounded the foreland and all is calm: a tranquil sea, a tideless haven. Meditations During the past hundred years Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytical