practical stoicism exercises for doing the right thing right now written by Gray Freeman and narrated by Robin Homer forward. So, how exactly does one actually do this stoic thing? Multiple posters on our slash stoicism. Much ink has been spilled on the topic of what Stoics believe and why, but that merely sets the table for what truly matters: the actual application of the philosophy. Because it is far too easy to continually educate and ruminate and contemplate without actually doing anything useful. I want to help minimize the gap between thought and action as much as possible by providing a short guide of practical things one can actually do to bring one's philosophy out of the world of the theoretical into the moment where we actually live. A note on the presentation: I have broken this book into several small essays of about a page, depending on how you are reading it, a piece. One per practice. Each practice begins with a verb. It's important to understand that these are things you do, even if it's all happening in your head. This is not a

dissertation on theory. This book is not a primer for the new initiative. Consider it more as a companion piece to be read alongside other works that go further into the reasoning behind the practices discussed here. Without that component, this becomes a collection of empty rituals. Without this, those might lead you to believe that reading something inspirational is akin to doing something useful. See the companion material appendix for suggestions. Listen to these chapters at random. The book is intended to be consumed in small bites whenever one is idle or feeling off, true to act as a goad to do the thing that needs to be done. Contemplative practice and consider if it seems helpful to you and if so, how you might integrate it into your life. Then do it. As Bruce says, knowing is not enough. Now I know a refuge never grows from a chin in a hand in a thoughtful pose. Gotta tend the earth if you want a rose. Emily Saliers. Get up at dawn. When you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself, I have to go to work as a human.

being what do I have to complain of if I am going to do what I was born for. The thing I was brought into the world to do. Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm. But it's nicer here. So you were born to feel nice instead of doing things and experiencing them. Don't you see the plants, the birds, the ants, spiders, and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order as best they can, and you're not willing to do your job as a human being. Why aren't you running to do what your nature demands? Marcus Aurelius meditations book 5 part 1. Like almost everything else in life, more than enough sleep is too much. Studies show that sleeping more than an average of 7 to 8 hours a day can lead to diabetes, obesity, headaches, back pain, and heart disease. What's worse and more immediate is that any hour spent sleeping beyond what your body actually needs to recuperate or repair itself is an hour you have lost forever.

an hour loss to sleep will not be available to you for meditation. That hour cannot be used to make you stronger and more resilient. It cannot be used to make the world a better place. In that hour, you will not test yourself and grow. You will not do great deeds. In that hour, you will not even remember it happened. It is simply buried eternally beneath the sands of time, an irreplaceable treasure lost to the ages. Better to take back the hour and use it as your nature demands. You've rested enough. Time now to take a deep breath and get on with living your life. Catch a sunrise. The Pythagoreans bid us in the morning look to the heavens, that we may be reminded of those bodies that continually do the same things and in the same manner perform their work, and also be reminded of their purity and nudity, for there is no veil over a star. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 11, Part 27. Every once in a while, find the time to get out of bed before sunrise.

drag yourself to where you can see it. It doesn't take that long, and it's a magnificent sight. Think of your place in the universe. Consider that whatever you've done before, here is one more chance to get it right. There are no guarantees you'll see another one. Use this opportunity wisely. Prepare for battle. Cling tooth and nail to the following rule: not to give in to adversity, never to trust prosperity, and always to take full note of Fortune's habit of behaving just as she pleases, treating her as if she were actually going to do everything it is in her power to do. Whatever you have been expecting for some time comes as less of a shock. Seneca in Moral Letters to Lucilius, one way of several to do the premeditation malorum, the premeditation of Evils, is to start your day with a walk through your calendar. Consider what you will do, where you will go, and who you'll meet. Imagine how it might go wrong. Now think about how it will feel, how it will look.

others how you might be embarrassed, or angered, or disappointed. Just this part of the exercise has its benefits. It deadens the pain of the actual event if it actually happens through a sort of emotional hardening process. It even extends to other unrelated events. If you can endure sorrow better in this instance, you can endure it elsewhere. Now consider how you might respond to this misfortune, how you might lessen the damage, soften the blow. Use this as an opportunity to do a little contingency planning. If the presentation goes poorly, is there another resource you can appeal to? Can you repurpose the meeting advantageous lis? Can you lay the groundwork for a second attempt? Extend your definition of misfortune to include diversions and temptations that might challenge your values. Determine ahead of time how you'll handle the free donuts in the break room, that's cute married lady who flirts with you, that guy who is always making fun of your coworkers. Finally, consider how you will handle the undesired emotions, how will you maintain the space you need to

form a reasoned response. Just thinking about it lessens the shock. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses, what else are you going to have to do? Now you can start the day knowing that you can still be surprised, but you can't be shaken. Review your impressions, so make a practice at once of saying to every strong impression, An impression is all you are, not the source of the impression. Then test and assess it with your criteria, but one primarily: ask, Is this something that is or is not in my control? And if it's not one of the things that you control, be ready with the reaction, Then it's none of my concern. - Epictetus in the Enchiridion, Book 1, Part 5. Review your recent emotional responses. What made you angry? What nagging fear continues to wear at you? To whom do you have antipathy? In short, what negative emotions are you experiencing now? Ask yourself why. If virtue is sufficient for fulfillment, why are you feeling anything other than serenity? What inappropriate impression have you assented to? What virtue have you

lacked to allow this disharmony into your inner Citadel. If there is an area of particular concern, start keeping accounts of those incidents when it has raised its ugly head. Often just measuring a thing goes a long way towards fixing it. Just knowing that, for instance, you lost your cool and yelled at the teenager four times this week, or that you snacked twice when you'd promised yourself you wouldn't. It's not a judgement, it's just a number, but there are reasons behind the number and you can work with those. Brace for trolls, say to yourself in the early morning, I shall meet today inquisitive, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, and charitable men. All these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill. People do not choose to behave the way they do, so that men of a certain type should behave as they do is inevitable. To wish it otherwise were to wish the fig tree would not yield its juice. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 1

pessimistic as it sounds, one can't deny the truth of it. On any given day, you will meet a few jerks. Similarly, to prepare for battle, it's best to anticipate that and remove the sting of surprise. But further, consider how you will handle them philosophically. Go through the mental play-acting of not losing your cool, of acknowledging that they could only act as they do. Consider how you will preserve your serenity and remain above the fray. Admit that you have your faults - and sometimes you hide them better than other times. Imagine that somewhere in your fine city, someone else is taking a deep breath, making a face, and preparing to deal with you. Ready your tools, as physicians always have their instruments and knives ready for cases that suddenly require their skill. So do you have principles ready for the understanding of things divine and human, and for doing everything, even the smallest, with a recollection of the bond that unites the divine and human to each other. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 3, Part 13.

memorize those guideposts. You find most helpful in your philosophy quotes. Maxim's the basics of your belief system. Whatever it takes to bring you back to Center keep copies of meditations. The enchiridion and whatever else you find inspirational and supportive to your practice. Even this book close to hand review them regularly so that you can recall the right response with minimal effort. A caveats preparing your tools should never be used as an excuse to not use them. You can spend so much time getting ready to live that you never get around to actually living. Ready them but don't wait for them. The easier it is to access those guiding principles you have chosen to follow. The easier it is to find the right tools when you face your next challenge pause assess then decide. Remember it is not enough to be hit or insulted to be harmed. You must believe that you are being harmed. If someone succeeds in provoking you realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation. Which is why it is essential that we not respond.

impulsively to impressions. Take a moment before reacting, and you will find it easier to maintain control. Epictetus in the enchiridion part 20. Whenever you are assailed with a powerful emotional reaction, immediately take a deep breath and separate the event from your impression of it. The event is what happens; your impression is how you have initially, instinctively viewed it. Will you ascend? Anything outside your control is of no real concern; it cannot touch the you that matters. But your considered response is indeed yours to control. Will you choose to be angry, depressed, afraid? Why? How do those things help you? How do they make you stronger or more virtuous? How do they lead to a life of eudaimonia? Instead, take a deep breath and reach for some perspective. Whatever it was that happened, it's already drifting into the past. What does this moment require of you? A by the fork of all existing things, some are in our power and others are not in our power. In our power, our thoughts, impulse, will to get, and will to avoid.

and in a word everything, which is our own doing. Things not in our power include the body, property, reputation, office, and in a word everything, which is not our own doing. Things in our power are by nature free, unhindered, untrammeled. Things not in our power are weak, servile, subjects to hindrance, dependent on others. Remember then that if you imagine that what is naturally slavish is free, and what is naturally another's is your own, you will be hampered, you will mourn, you will be put to confusion, you will blame the gods and men. But if you think that only your own belongs to you, and that what is another's is indeed, and others, no one will ever put compulsion or hindrance on you. You will blame none, you will accuse none, you will do nothing against your will, no one will harm you, you'll have no enemy, for no harm can touch you. Epictetus in the enchiridion part one. In all things that you believe to concern you, you must apply the stoic fork. Is this thing within my power?

things that occur in your head those impressions to which you were sent the actions you undertake the thoughts you form and the exercise of your will these you control completely no external force can make you do any of these nor stop you from doing them but the results of your efforts are largely not under your control you can do everything right and prudent and still not be rewarded you can study extensively and still be considered a fool you can work like a mule and still be poor you can live a healthy life style and still get sick the classic stoic example is that of the archer the archer can take the correct stance aim perfectly and release the arrow with precision but anything can happen after that the winds can change and blow the arrow off target the target can move the string could break none of these results should matter if the archer restricts his concern to performing his task well it is the effort put forth the intent and the will that matters because we control it if you restrict your concern to that which you control and you

address those concerns with wisdom and courage. You will be fulfilled, or you can chase after things outside your control and forever be a slave to the whims of fate. Use your head. I am content if I am in accord with nature in what I will to get and will to avoid. If I follow nature in impulse to act and to refrain from action, in purpose and design, and assent. Epictetus discourses part 22. At its very core, the font from which all other stoic teaching Springs is follow nature. This is not a command to hug trees and dance with the satyrs, but to act in the manner that naturally allows us to flourish. These principles work because they are natural. Every law in the universe supports them, and like gravity, any attempt to ignore them will have unfortunate consequences. One can understand the stoic discipline of ethics as being the study of how to correctly follow nature. To do this, one must have a solid grasp of the logic discipline, and the information to which one applies that logic comes from the

final discipline physics. The ancient Stoics understood physics as a combination of what we today refer to as Natural Science, metaphysics, and theology. More broadly, it can simply be understood as the way things are. Following nature means following the facts. It means getting the facts about the physical and social world we inhabit, and the facts about our situation in it: our own powers, relationships, limitations, possibilities, motives, intentions, and endeavors before we deliberate about normative matters. Lawrence Becker, A New Stoicism, so you use logic to understand physics, which tells you what is ethical. Put another way, you use reason to study facts in order to figure out what to do or how to live. If you understand this process, then you'll recognize that all the other teachings of the ancient are simply rules of thumb derived from the first rule to follow nature. In any situation where you find yourself at a loss concerning what is right, if your Maxims are in conflict, if you forget what Epictetus said about it, if the rules are counterintuitive, your default response

should always be to fall back to the source and follow nature. And that just means use your head. If the facts change, you adjust. If you don't have enough information, you get more. If your current path doesn't make sense, you go a different direction. Use only that which works and take it from any place you can find it. There is no orthodoxy in a living philosophy, and you can't be doing it wrong if you're making it work. Take a third-party perspective. We can familiarize ourselves with the will of nature by calling to mind our common experiences. When a friend breaks a glass, we are quick to say, Oh, bad luck. It's only reasonable then that when a glass of your own breaks, you accept it in the same patient spirit. Moving on to graver things, when somebody's wife or child dies to a man, we all routinely say, Well, that's part of life. But if one of our own family is involved, then right away it's poor, poor me. We would do better to remember how we react when a similar loss afflicts others.

Epictetus enchiridion part 26. If you hear that your neighbor has a busted water heater, do you sympathetically worry that he'll go broke dealing with it? Most likely, you take it with a shrug and figure he'll work it out with no significant impact on his lifestyle. But at your own house, the possibility of a significant home repair bill is cause for great concern. Is it because your neighbor is more capable than you? It's natural but not reasonable to feel like your challenges are of greater import than those encountered by others. They're simply closer. To get a more objective perspective, it's often helpful to take a step back and view your obstacles as if you were a disinterested but sympathetic third party. Would someone in that role be concerned for you, or would they see the situation as one of the sorts that people encounter daily and daily navigate without injury? It's hard to justify an emotional reaction to a situation that is only important because it's happening to you. Supports your community if mind is common to us then.

also the reason whereby we are reasoning beings is common. If this be so, then also the reason which enjoins what is to be done or left is common. If this be so, law also is common. If this be so, we are citizens. If this be so, we are partakers in one Constitution. If this be so, the universe is a kind of Commonwealth. Marcus Aurelius meditations book 4 part 5. Again, they the Stoics hold that the universe is governed by divine will. It is a city or state of which both men and gods are members, and each one of us is a part of this universe. From which it is a natural consequence that we should prefer the common advantage to our own. Cicero in de finibus. One must consider that in a certain way one's brothers are parts of oneself, just as my eyes are parts of me, and so to my legs and hands and the rest. Here at least fragments and excerpts. The stoic concept of erich iosys posits that a stoic should steadily increase the

scope of his concerns to include the well-being of not just himself, not just his family, and not just the nation, but all of humanity. They considered this an extension of the foundational motto: the goal of life is to live in agreement with nature. Because it is natural for any animal as it matures to look towards the preservation of the species, so too should we if we are to mature. What can you do to aid in the preservation of your species? What can you do to treat your fellow humans as if they were citizens of your Universal Commonwealth, your brothers, your arms? Start by thinking of them that way. Consider worst-case scenarios. We should remind our spirits all the time that they love things that will leave, not better things that are already leaving. You possess whatever is given by fortune without a guarantor. Seneca, in his consolation to Marcia, said: If an evil has been pondered beforehand, the blow is gentle when it comes. To the fool, however, and to him who trusts in fortune, each event as it arrives comes in a new and

sudden form, and a large part of evil to the inexperienced, consists in its novelty. This is proved by the fact that men endure with greater courage when they have become accustomed to them the things which they had at first regarded as hardships. Seneca in his moral letters, Tula Silius, letter 76. It is important to regularly spend time meditating on the worst outcomes you can possibly imagine. Spend 10 minutes imagining losing your sights in an accident, your child to a disease, your livelihood, earned reputation in one dramatic meltdown, your life, whatever you are currently most afraid of, whatever has been haunting your thoughts. That do it for 10 minutes, for 10 whole minutes, walk through each agonizing step of your excruciating loss. What would you do? How would you handle it? Could you really be stoic about it? Possibly not, but in 10 minutes, you'll open your eyes and all will be as it was. None of your worst fears will have happened, only now you will have faced those fears and know.

that you will get past them one way or another. If it happens, you will not be debilitated with shock. You will get to work on what comes next. You will appreciate what you have and yet fully accept that it is only yours so long as Lady Luck wills it. You will be stronger versus that which you fear the most. It sounds horrible and morbid. It sounds like a nasty way to begin the day, but only by confronting your fears can you overcome them and learn to face whatever fate throws at you with serenity. Practice discomfort. Set aside a certain number of days during which you shall be content with the scantiest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while, Is this the condition that I feared? Seneca in his moral letters to Lucilius, letter 18, Difficulties strengthen the mind as labor does the body. Seneca in his essay on morals, resilience is a huge part of stoic practical philosophy. The idea is that intentionally subjecting oneself to inconvenience and minor pains.

will prepare you to better withstand the challenges of the real thing with equanimity. Stoics and other Greece schools of philosophy would famously do things like hug cold statues in the morning or walk about in uncomfortable clothing to build mental scar tissue. If one could develop the habit of dismissing minor annoyances as indifference of no consequence, how much harder would it be to dismiss major ones, to view them without dread. The sage in training then should practice discomfort in minor ways whenever possible: drink nothing but water one day, two temple ones will power walk outside on a chilly day without the normal degree of layering to get a taste of what the weather feels like, park on the other end of the parking lots and take the long way in, turn the hot water down in the shower or turn the AC off in the house. If you get an itch, metaphorical or otherwise, just let it be. All of these little tests of the will strengthen it like a muscle and hopefully leave you fortified when the real test happens.

Practical Stoicism | 11 Steps To Practice Stoicism

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