Living Well & Stoicism

Stoicism is an ancient philosophy. A modern example would be Star Trek's Mr. Spock.

Stoicism & Control explains why we should be stoical and how it will improve our lives. Some highlights:

This is the Stoic concept of control; we can’t always control what happens to us, but we can always decide how we react to it. Our response is our responsibility, it’s a choice. Today we’re going to explore the ancient Stoic philosophy behind the concept and look at how we can implement it in daily life.

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 A core teaching of Epictetus’ Stoic philosophy was control.

He taught that the path to a happy life, a life of what the Stoics called Eudaimonia, was found in two things:

Correctly identifying what is within our control, and what is not.

Focusing our effort on the things within our control and learning to accept what is not.

This distinction is important, because no matter how much we try, no matter how upset we get, or frustrated we become, we cannot change the things outside the reach of our control. A life of attempting to control the uncontrollable will undoubtedly be one of bitterness, frustration and wasted effort.

When I achieved some lucidity after my crack up, when I realized I needed to understand how I came to that crack up, I looked back on my life. It seems to me I tried to control what was beyond me. Unable to obtain that control led my depression which led me to nihilism. My remedy for nihilism was self-destruction.

Nowadays I work on keeping my life uncomplicated.

sch 8/13/22