with a calm spirit..................

     Understand:  Like everyone, you think you are rational, but you are not.  Rationality is not a power you are born with but one you acquire through training and practice.  The voice of Athena simply stands for a higher power that exists within you right now, a potential you have perhaps felt in moments of calmness and focus, the perfect idea coming to you after much thinking.  You are not connected to this higher power in the present because your mind is weighted down with emotions. . . .
     Your first task is to look at those emotions that are continually infecting your ideas and decision.  Learn to question yourself:  Why this anger or resentment?  Where does this incessant need for attention come from?  Under such scrutiny, your emotions will lose their hold on you.  You will begin to thing for yourself instead of reacting to what others give you.  Emotions tend to narrow the mind, making us focus on one or two ideas that satisfy our immediate desire for power or attention, ideas that usually backfire.  Now, with a calm spirit, you can entertain a wide range of options and solutions.  You will deliberate longer before acting and reassess your strategies.  The voice will become clearer and clearer.  When people besiege you with their endless dramas and petty emotions, you will resent the distraction and apply your rationality to think past them.  Like an athlete continually getting stronger through training, your mind will become more flexible and resilient.  Clear and calm, you will see answers and creative solutions that no one else can envision.

-Robert Greene,  The Laws Of Human Nature