The Little Book of Stoicism: Timeless Wisdom to Gain Resilience, Confidence, and Calmness

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We must keep in mind that happiness depends more on what we make of what happens rather than what happens in the first place. No matter what happens to you, your mind is always available to turn it into good fortune by responding with virtue. So here I am, passionately writing about what would have saved me countless weeks of research and would have provided so much sought-after and desperately needed wisdom from this exemplary philosophy. I’m positive that this book will contribute to the modern Stoic literature and, most importantly, that it will serve you well on your quest for the good life. Because that’s really what Stoicism helps you with: living a great life. where they may. What is it then that we have control over? Only a few things—onr voluntary judgments and actions. We can decide what events mean to us and how we want to react to them (we’ll look at our judgments more closely in the third corner of the Stoic Happiness Triangle.) And our actions, we can choose to align them with virtue, as discussed in the previous part. All else is not under our control. That’s from the weather to other people and their actions to our health and body, and literally everything that happens around us. Right, our body, for example, is not completely under our control. We can surely influence it with our behavior—we can lift weights, do some all-out sprints, and eat a broccoli a day—but this won’t make our hips smaller, our shoulders wider, our nose straighter, or our eyes bluer. There are certain things that influence our body that we don’t control, such as genes, early exposure, or injuries. The so-called Stoic dichotomy of control—some things are up to us, other things are not—is really about the recognition of three levels of influence we have over the world: • High influence: Our choices in judgments and actions • Partial influence: Health, wealth, relationships, and outcomes of our behaviors • No influence: Weather, ethnicity, and most external circumstances “This is wholly up to you—who is there to prevent you being good and sincere?” Marcus Aurelius often reminded himself of the power he was granted by nature—the power to choose his actions and craft his own character. He said people can’t admire you for what’s been granted to you by nature, but there are many other qualities to cultivate. “So display those virtues which are wholly in your own power—integrity, dignity, hard work, self-denial, contentment, frugality, kindness, independence, simplicity, discretion, magnanimity.” We are the only ones to stop ourselves from cultivating these qualities. It’s

Philosophy is all about applying its principles to the real world. Remember, we want to be warrior-philosophers and put into practice what we learn. For the Stoics and all other schools of ancient philosophy, the ultimate goal of life was eudaimonia, to become good ( eu) with your inner daimon (inner spirit/divine spark).Based on my many years of interest in, reading, and listening to all manner of books of this nature, there is something quite amazing about this book.

We must remember that pain can be an opportunity to test and improve our virtue. We can practice patience and endurance—two noble strengths.He lists 55 different practices to get you well on your way to making you a happier, healthier, and stronger human being. But we should never do it for the befits alone which, if they happen, are only the cherry on top of the pie.