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June 21 - June 22, 2020
stop talking about what the good person is like, and just be one.”
work toward cultivating a healthy mind. Stoicism teaches you to focus your thoughts and actions on that which you can control.
Some things are in your control, and some things are outside of your control.
Stoics divide every situation according to this and focus only on the former.
work to desire only what is within your complete control.
seek healthy, positive relationships with everyone you meet, even knowing others may not reciprocate.
separate your initial reactions to the world from your final judgments about the world.
refuse to walk down mental paths that lead to negativity, instead evaluating your thoughts in order to align with wisdom.
Your mind is yours—and yours alone. If you focus on healthy thoughts and develop balanced opinions about your situation, you will cultivate positive emotions and find lasting enthusiasm to live your best life.
review your most recent past: yesterday. Ideally, practice this every night, just before going to sleep. First, look back on your day: What do you feel was unsuccessful? What did you do well? Finally, is there anything that you left undone that could be addressed tomorrow? Celebrate your triumphs. Use lessons from your mistakes to make progress tomorrow.
accept events with humility.
practice moderation
find courage when facing l...
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develop a love of justice and treat people as they s...
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approach every thought ...
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To develop consistent happiness, you must train yourself to desire only what you can always have, and fear only what you can always avoid.
understanding what you can control and what you cannot.
You ask yourself—what desires can I always obtain, and what things can I always avoid? The Stoic answer is if you only desire to be your best (to live with virtue) and if you only avoid moral mistakes (called vice), then you can always succeed because these are things that you control.
“These two things must be cut away: fear of the future, and the memory of past sufferings. The latter no longer concerns me, and the future does not concern me yet.”
Wishing things were different is a waste of energy.
remind yourself that past and future have no power over you. Only the present—and even that can be minimized. Just mark off its limits.”
allow yourself to dwell on the present, essentially fencing yourself off from the future and the past. Take a breath. Draw your attention to the present moment. The past is finished. The future is unknowable. Leave anxieties about the future alone; they solely exist in your imagination. You can only act in the present.
stop focusing on outcomes—but instead desire being your best at every moment—you’ll understand that every situation provides an opportunity to practice virtue.
When confronted by a challenge, ask yourself: •How can I benefit from this? •What virtue can I draw on to meet this moment?
Sit in a comfortable place, close your eyes, and picture yourself from above. As you look at yourself, pull back, and see your neighborhood. Then your town, your country, the world, perhaps even the universe. As you do this, at each stage, put your challenges in relationship to what you are seeing. Notice that others are also confronting challenges. Understand that the world isn’t so focused on you that your mistakes are seen by all. Allow your troubles to fade into the distance for this moment. Find peace in the world and in your small part of it.
“Don’t panic before the picture of your entire life. Don’t dwell on all the troubles you’ve faced or have yet to face, but instead ask yourself as each trouble comes: What is so unbearable or unmanageable in this? Your reply will embarrass you.
“People feel disturbed not by things, but by the views they take of them.”
other people’s reactions weren’t my direct responsibility. I could only control how I thought and acted, and if I did that well, the likelihood of others acting better also increased.
The Stoic mind-set gave me Courage. I no longer avoided the reactions of others. Instead, I avoided cowardice, hesitation, and dread.
Focusing on your own actions will give you the best chance of reaching external goals.
“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing.
A wise person is content with their lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what they have not.”
Remember: The one thing you control is yourself. As you learn to seek out a good flow of life, look at your own choices first, before judging the actions of others.
Accepting that nothing lasts forever will help you engage with things in the moment.
focus on your actions without obsessing over the outcome.
you cannot control outcomes but can only do your best.
If you want lasting happiness, instead, properly arrange what’s inside you—not the things surrounding
“People feel disturbed not by things, but by the views they take of them.”
“What is the happy life? It is peace of mind, and lasting tranquillity.
The Stoics would often take their present-focused philosophy to the extreme and visualize each day as their final day. Seneca claims that this practice can free you of anxiety about the future, allowing you to wake up and receive the new day as a gift. This evening, test Seneca’s technique and treat today as an ending, a clean break from the future.
By focusing your energy on that which you can control and valuing your virtue over everything else, you can stay positive in the toughest circumstances.
you get angry when you can’t have what you want; you feel sad when you lose things. The only way to break this cycle is to redirect your attention onto what you already own and what can never be taken from you: your virtue.
I used to be a get-the-last-word-in sort of person. It really bothered me if I didn’t “win” a discussion. Over the years, Stoicism taught me to value how I conduct myself during conversations more than how the interaction ends. Did I say what I meant to say? Did I give people a chance to understand my point of view? Did I listen to everyone else with my honest attention? If so, I did my best. Nowadays, if someone tries to belittle me, misrepresent my point of view, or demand attention I don’t owe them, I barely notice. I’m content, and everything else is someone else’s issue. It’s freeing!
“Don’t panic before the picture of your entire life. Don’t dwell on all the troubles you’ve faced or have yet to face, but instead ask yourself as each trouble comes, ‘what is so unbearable or unmanageable in this?’ Your reply will embarrass you. Then remind yourself that it’s not the future or the past that bears down on you, but only the present. Always the present, which becomes an even smaller thing when isolated in this way and when the mind that cannot bear up under so slender an object is chastened.”
A lot of the emotional weight of an event comes from your imagination.
Seneca urged Stoics to take time to deprive themselves of the finer things.
For a few days, or a week at a time, Seneca would stay in a barely furnished room, lay on a hard mat, eat bland, basic foods,
Many Stoics use cold showers as a way to accept discomfort as an indifferent. You could quit TV or the internet for a few days.
“When people injure you, ask yourself what good or harm they thought would come of it. If you understand that, you’ll feel sympathy rather than outrage or anger. Your sense of good and evil may be the same as theirs, in which case you have to excuse them. Or your sense of good and evil may differ from theirs. In which case they’re misguided and deserve your compassion. Is that so hard?”
“When any person treats you badly or speaks ill of you, remember that they do this because they think they must. It’s not possible for them to do what you think is right, but only what seems right to them . . . if you understand this you will have a milder temper with those who revile you because you can always say, ‘it seemed so to them.’”
