Stoicism
Stoicism is created to help people live their best possible lives. Stoicism is a school of philosophy that comes from ancient Greece and Rome in the early 3rd century, BC.
Stoicism is created in the early stage of civilisation, which means at that time the thought process of people was different. People didn’t want to have a luxury or aesthetic life, all they wanted was to sustain themselves from all the potentials dangers. For this uncertainty, people used stoicism to calm their minds and make their souls ascend.
But in present days, stoicism is again becoming very important for all of us. To help us get rid of anxiety, stress, fear and depression, practising Stoicism is one of the greatest ways to live. Nowadays, businessmen, politicians other people are using stoicism as their life path to answer the questions like, “ what do we want from life?”, “ what will happen to me after the covid situation”?
Overall stoicism helps us to live a satisfying life by maximising our happiness and removing negative emotions. Many well-known personalities like, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Arianna Huffington, Tom Brady, Tim Ferriss and more have tried and tested the value of stoicism in their life.
Proponents
Several thinkers helped to form stoic Philosophy. They are-
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus aurelias was head of the roman empire for 2 decades, at a time when it was one of the most influential civilisations of the world. Although being one of the most influential emperors of the world, aurelias practices stoicism. Every night in his journal, he wrote how it is like being stoic and living a virtuous, restrained and wise life. These writings were entirely written for himself, but later these writings got discovered and published as meditations, which is been thought of as one of the most important texts of Stoicism.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Seneca was a statesman, dramatist and writer, for this reason, he was very good with words. Due to his practical consideration of the topics like morality, friendship, altruism and the use of time, his books are placed as the very best books of beginners in stoic philosophy.
Zeno of Citium
Zeno of Citium first started the stoic philosophy, for which the name of this philosophy was zenoism, which later changed because stoic philosophers didn’t want to take the risk of the philosophy being the “Cult of Personality”.
Epictetus
Epictetus was a former slave, who changed his life by using stoic philosophy. He had a way of explaining how the philosophy of stoicism can be used in one’s daily life and how it can be the primary operating system of one’s life.
Main quotes of stoicism
“Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: Some things are within our control, and some things are not.” (Epictetus)
Most of the time we think that we feel negative emotions for the things that happen to us. But actually, we can never control what happens to us, so we can only do our job and be satisfied with that. The detachment with the outcome is the way to happiness.
“It is not events that disturb people, it is their judgements concerning them.” (Epictetus)
We judge our external events all the time, i.e. if it is a good event or bad and why it is so. But the events in themselves don’t have any meaning, they have the meaning we give them. So judging the incident negatively will cause negative emotions to rise, but if we consciously decide not to judge any situation negatively, it can never make us feel sad.
“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.” — Seneca
Often time we think about the things we want to happen in our future and then the thought of ‘if everything goes wrong” comes to our mind, and we immediately become anxious. But if we stop thinking about worst-case scenarios in the future and just face them when it comes, it will be much less suffering.
"When you're alone you should call this condition tranquillity and freedom, and think of yourself like the gods; and when you are with many, you shouldn't call it a crowd, or trouble, or uneasiness, but festival and company, and contentedly accept it." (Epictetus)
Our external environment doesn’t work according to our choice, so we blame the environment for our lack of productivity or happiness. But if we train ourselves to enjoy the solitude and the festivals, we can be happy all the time.
“I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent—no one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you.” – Seneca
The stoics see misfortune in a very different light. They see misfortune as an opportunity to sharpen their abilities and virtue. They think without having misfortunes we can never understand the true potential.
“External things are not the problem. It’s your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now.” – Marcus Aurelius
Most of the time incidents doesn’t hurt us, but the story we are telling ourselves about the incident. For example, if someone fails an exam they will be sad and negative because they think they are not worthy of passing the exam. But if someone tells them that the exam is being cancelled because the default results of all the students came as “failed” then they will immediately feel better about the situation.
Why it is important today
In this modern era, these stoic philosophies are still very relevant. This makes us less anxious and stress and fearful of our situations. Stoicism guides people in their worst times as well as the best of times. Practising stoicism in everyday life makes us feel how privileged we are daily and makes us happier.
How can we use these principles today?
Journaling can be very important for people to start their stoic journey. Consciously deciding what they want to think about any situation outside of their control can be increased highly by journaling every day.
Negative visualization- everybody talks about positive visualisation, but stoics talk about negative visualisation, as we can visualisation before starting a job “what are the things that can totally go wrong?”, if we practice these worst-case scenarios, then when the real bad things happen, it does not affect us much and we can be more prepared on how to deal with it.
Practising the worst-case scenario in real life is the other biggest thing which is been suggested by Tim Ferris. As we can practice fasting every week or month, where we can feel the worst scenario of poverty, which is the real hunger. The more we practice deliberate discomforts, the less the unplanned discomfort controls our life.
Conclusion
Stoicism doesn’t mean you have to live your life without materials, rather you will be able to use materials as per your need. Many significant individuals spend most of their days being upset about not having a beautiful car or bigger home, where stoics are against consumerism and think materials goods just to the extent that makes them satisfied and happy.
At last the Serenity Prayer
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” (Epictetus)
Learn more about Stoicism
A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William Irvine
The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday
The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph by Ryan Holiday
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The Psychology Podcast, ft. Ryan Holiday on Stoicism
Tim Ferris - On The Shortness of Life: An Introduction to Seneca
Ryan Holiday's website features many articles on Stoicism
How to be a Stoic, website dedicated to practical Stoicism by Massimo Pigliucci
List of Stoicism themed podcasts
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Very nice.
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