3 ideas
Stoics distinguished the raw impression (phantasia) of an event from the value judgment we add to it, and trained themselves to say 'this is only an impression, not the thing it claims to be.' By noticing the judgment as a thought rather than a fact, the emotional charge weakens before assent is given.
The practitioner imagines rising above their current situation until they can see their city, then the Earth, then vast stretches of time, holding the present worry against that scale. This shrinks the apparent importance of fame, insults and petty desires, and it also shows the self as one part of a single interconnected whole. Marcus used it to loosen attachment and to reframe his troubles as tiny parts of a larger natural order.
Marcus met provocation by examining the offender's character and remembering that people do wrong out of ignorance of good and bad. He also reminded himself that he had made similar mistakes and that both parties would soon be dead. He counted the delay itself as a remedy, because anger fades under reflection while its consequences often last longer than the cause.