Marcus Aurelius is one of the most famous
and well-known stoic philosophers of all time. He was a Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 AD,
and he was the last ruler from a line later known as ‘The Five Good Emperors.’ He was in one of the highest positions of
power in the world at the time and would have access to the realization of all his temptations
and desires should he wish for them, but instead, he dedicated his life to fairness and justice. During his rule, Aurelius found the time to
construct a series of autobiographical writings, now known as the Meditations, which has become
one of the most important texts within stoic philosophy. In the meditations, Aurelius describes guides
on how to improve oneself. These were mostly focused on ‘taking a cosmic
perspective’ and critically analyzing your judgment on yourself and others. As a leader of a powerful empire that experienced
multiple wars during his rule, Aurelius used

his own stoic philosophy to let go of stress
and worries, and to be the very best and reliable leader he could be. Stoicism is an ancient and incredibly famous
philosophy that, aside from a theory, is also a truly inspiring way of thinking and living. The stoics strongly believed that doing the
right thing was the key to individual happiness, and that in order to do the right thing, sound
judgement and clear rational thinking was necessary. So with that in mind, in this video, we will
talk about how you can develop a rational mind through five important lessons that
can help you think more clearly from the teachings of Marcus Aurelius.
1. Train Your Perception. Marcus Aurelius says, “Choose not to be harmed,
and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed, and you haven’t been.” One of the greatest lessons of stoicism is
to take control of your perception. We’re used to judging everything we come
across.

Any event we experience, any people we meet,
sights we see - all of them get a value judgement. Something was either bad, good, boring, fun,
beautiful, ugly, etc. This is, unbeknownst to us, a very exhausting
practice and also one that might affect our lives for the worse. For example, judging every interaction you
have on a particularly hard day as ‘awful’ gives the day itself an even more negative
view. If you label a party you went to as boring,
that is all it will be: that one boring part of your week. We often let our initial judgments of things
be influenced by our emotions, which means that they are most likely not entirely rational. Furthermore, our tendency to judge every moment
of our lives goes hand in hand with a tendency to talk in metaphors and hyperboles that make
things seem worse. If you get dumped by your partner, you might
say your ex ‘broke your heart’ instead

of the fundamental fact that they no longer
feel for you the way they used to. This way of speaking - or rather: this way
of thinking - shapes how you feel. It is not the actual event that makes you
feel bad, but rather the way you unconsciously choose to think about it. The stoics, in contrast, encourage people
to be careful to judge everything you come across and the things that you do, and one
of the ways to be careful is to 'undo your judgements', which essentially means to look
past them: to be able to forget your first instinct and to judge something through a
more optimistic and reasonable lens. You can try to ‘re-frame’ that boring
party in your mind as an event where you got to see a new place and meet some new people. OK, afterwards you might note that you didn’t
really resonate with anyone, but you didn’t go in with the expectation of negativity. As such, practising not to judge everything
based on your first instinct and emotion is

the very best way to start training your perception
on life. Whenever you think about anything in an opinionated
way, try to ask yourself, ‘Is this rational? What have I based my opinion on? Is there a better or more positive way to
interpret this?’ Marcus Aurelius stressed that harms can only
be if you consider them as harms. This means that any hard experience you went
through seems harder and worse, the harder and worse you consider it to be. As such, you have complete control over how
much certain situations affect you. The stoics also encourage you to see every
‘bad’ thing that happens as an opportunity or source for ‘good.’ As an exercise of training your perspective
in a stoic way, there is a challenge called ‘Turning The Obstacle Upside Down.’ When a new coworker is a slow learner and
their mistakes affect the company’s profits, you might feel frustration. This coworker is an obstacle to what you are
trying to achieve: effectiveness, efficiency.

and profit. However, this situation can also be an opportunity
for good. It is an opportunity for youth to exercise
and practice patience, to become a better teacher, to learn how to integrate new people
into the company, and how to handle stressful times. All of these are skills that will also be
useful later, and should also help you increase profits in the long run, as well. On this subject, Marcus Aurelius famously
said: ‘The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.’ So, all in all, instead of judging everything
you come across in an exaggerated sense, take the time to look at things as they objectively
are, and you might find that life is simpler and clearer than you thought. Every situation has a more positive interpretation
and a more negative one. When you adjust your mindset accordingly,
you will find that nothing bothers you as much as it used to, and you will get through
life much more easily.

2. Learn To Control Your Emotions. Marcus Aurelius advises us to… “Stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centred, irritable.” Acting out of emotion is often depicted as a stark contrast to acting rationally, and this is not without reason: there is nothing that clouds our judgement more than our own emotions can. So if you want to think clearly at all times, one of the most important skills to master is the ability to control your emotions. According to Marcus Aurelius, the emotion of anger in particular does us more harm than good. Contrary to what many people seem to think or try, controlling your emotions does not mean suppressing them. When you feel intense anger as a result of a betrayal, you cannot control this anger by denying its existence to yourself or others or by pretending you’re fine: it will still be there, no matter how deep down you push it.

Instead, controlling emotions such as anger
is, according to the stoics, done by redirecting emotions. So when you are next experiencing anger, ask
yourself what you can do with that anger. Yelling at the one who hurt you might seem
tempting, but will it help you lessen your hurt or better your situation? Will it help the one who betrayed you be better? In short: think about what you are tempted
to do and then ask yourself if it is helpful. If not, find ways to express your emotions
that are helpful. Maybe you can achieve better results by calmly
talking with the one who hurt you, explaining your feelings, and trying to see their side. You could also journal, take part in physical
exercise, get lost in a video game, or anything else that might help you let go of your anger
afterwards. For another example, take anxiety or fear. You cannot simply push it down, but you can
redirect it.

Instead of letting anxiety paralyse you, you
can use it to challenge yourself to take those actions that make you feel it and acknowledge
its existence throughout. Let’s say you’re too scared to ask your
boss for a raise. Lots of people see such fear as a reason not
to do something, and they allow themselves to be stopped by their anxieties. Others might be able to go through with it
and regard their anxiety as something that is in the way and needs to be pushed down
and ignored. But neither has to be the case: instead, your
fear is something that can be expressed healthily and maybe even end up being helpful. For example, this fear makes you think about
everything that can go wrong - which can lead you to consider all the possible questions
your boss might ask, all the counterarguments you might get to hear. This way you can brace for them and form
a plan for each possible scenario. But most importantly, the fear provides a
positive motivation to go through with it:

to challenge yourself and grow as a person. To prove to yourself that you can. To make the step not despite your fear, but
partly because of it. And in that scenario, you can be aware of
the anxiety throughout and think, ‘How awesome that I’m trying this anyway?!’ When you manage to redirect strong emotions
with ease, you will be a calm person no matter what and your emotions will never lessen your
ability to think rationally and make smart decisions. Controlling your emotions is the key to a
calmer mind.

3. Exercise The Dichotomy Of Control. In the words of Marcus Aurelius, “You have
power over your mind – not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength.” The dichotomy of control is the distinction
between what we can control and what we cannot. For example, the weather, traffic issues, or
what people think about you are all outside of your control. But how you dress, at what time you leave,
and the kind of people you surround yourself

with? That you can control. So, whenever you face a situation that makes
you feel a certain way, ask yourself: what can I control? Whatever you can control is a reason to act. Whatever you cannot control, you should learn
to accept and embrace without letting it affect you. Learning to distinguish these two things and
act accordingly can clear your mind instantly. A very important part of the dichotomy of
control is amor fati, or, translated: love for fate. When you embrace life and all the circumstances
it brings you, you will always love life. You cannot escape fate or decide circumstances
that are out of your control - but you can choose to love your life no matter what. If you find that you are rejected for a job
you have wanted for years, you might think there is no redemption in such a situation. You wanted the job, tried and failed - you
couldn’t possibly pretend to love fate in a circumstance like this. However, this is a misunderstanding.

Instead of viewing the fact you didn’t fulfil
your ambition purely as a negative, investigate what led to the negative result and use it
to make a positive move. Either the reason you didn’t get the job
was a failure on your part, in which case this is something you can control. You can work on those failings and try again
when a similar opportunity appears in the future. Or the reason was an external factor, like
nepotism or a personality clash with a member of the hiring staff. This was never in your control, meaning the
opportunity never truly existed, and there’s no point getting upset over something that
has never existed. One part of accepting fate is distancing yourself
from a fixed outcome and from external markers of success. If you want to be a writer, for example, and
measure your success by the amount of sales your book makes, then you will let your success
be controlled by the arbitrary book market of the time.

But if you choose to measure your success
by how satisfied you are with your finished product, or by the amount of work you put
into it, then you are in control of your success. So by all means, make sure to do everything
in power to try and achieve your goals! But never forget that you might not achieve
them and accept this possibility in advance. If we occupy ourselves only with what is in
our control and vow to accept everything that isn’t the exact way it comes, then one will
find themselves being calm whatever happens. 4. Keep Virtues In Mind. To quote Marcus Aurelius, “Dig deep within
yourself, for there is a fountain of goodness ever ready to flow if you will keep digging.” A virtue is ‘an excellence of character,’
or, simply said: morally good behaviour. Morally good behaviour benefits not only you
and those around you, but the greater good. The stoics believed in an interdependent universe:
that everything and everyone is connected.

in some way. Thus, according to stoicism, what is best
for the greater good is eventually best for you as well. This is why the stoics were convinced that
the most rational people were people that committed to the greater good - or, in other
words: acted virtuously. Not acting virtuous is the result of ignorance,
according to stoics. When life throws you in an unexpected direction,
virtues can guide you towards what to do and keep you grounded. This is why the most virtuous people are the
calmest and most relaxed. In order to be virtuous, one has to keep the
four most important virtues of stoicism in mind: wisdom, justice, temperance, and courage. Wisdom, in the eyes of stoics, is the ability
to judge what is good, bad, in between, or neutral. Instead of being controlled by emotion, one
must think clearly and logically as to what would be the morally correct thing to do.

When you have two options in a difficult situation,
wisdom is the ability to think through both. Then: justice. Justice is acquired through wisdom, and it
means doing both what is right and fair, to others as well as ourselves. The stoics regard it as one’s duty to both
oneself, our fellow men, and society as a whole. The third virtue, courage, is the ability
to take action in the face of your own fear. To do what is necessary or helpful even when
you do not know you will succeed. Courage is not the elimination of fear, desire,
or anxiety. Rather, it is deciding to act and taking steps
despite our fear, passion, and anxiety. Lastly, temperance. The other word for temperance is moderation,
which means to stay in the middle between two extremes - to make sure to never take
too much or too little. In practice, temperance often looks like self-restraint,
self-control, or discipline.

According to Aurelius, one quality that set humans apart from animals was the ability to stop oneself if necessary. Temperance is important for ensuring our long-term well-being over short-term satisfaction. For a very trivial example, consider a bag of chips. Finishing the entire bag in one go might be nice in the moment, but it is bad for your health, and even potentially your mood in some cases. Thus, one should practise self-restraint and stop after the first few bites. Temperance is also aided by wisdom: only by thinking wisely can you decide how much of something you need to acquire before stopping yourself. The stoics divided all possible things and actions in the world between goods, evils, and indifferents. It was always important to seek out good, avoid evil, and choose the indifferents as you please. You create evil when you act against one of these virtues; for example, when you steal

from somebody, disrespect someone, act recklessly,
or cowardly, or make somebody ill. You participate in good when you act according
to these virtues. And you do neither when you perform indifferent
acts, like taking a walk, for example. These simple rules to live by do not just
make you a better person, but they’ll make one a more relaxed one. When you act according to the virtues, you
are always guided by good and you are always acting rationally, according to the stoics. Such behaviour creates a calm mind. 5. Always Consider The Big Picture In our final quote from Marcus Aurelius for
this video, he says “How beautifully Plato put it. Whenever you want to talk about people, it’s
best to take a bird’s-eye view and see everything all at once”. Considering the big picture is a tremendously
important part of clearing one’s mind. When living life, we are always right in the
middle of everything: every problem can seem

like the end of the world. For example, when you’re in the middle of
a small crowd, it might seem that the entire city is crowded - but taking only a few steps
aside will prove the opposite. So, in general: when we take a step back and
look at the entirety of the world and our lives, we see how small all we experience
really is, and how tiny we truly are. And then we see how much of the world is there
beyond our subjective experience. Lots of people forget that their experiences
and opinions are not the only thing that should matter - even to themselves. Someone who's had a bad experience with dogs,
for example, might not understand or believe that dogs can be helpful and amazing pets
to others, unless they consciously consider the possibility of other experiences. From time-to-time, we all need to take a step
back and ask ourselves, “What are we forgetting or missing?” Doing this can be helpful in a number of ways.

For example, imagine having to choose between staying at your current job or applying for a newly opened position somewhere else. This might seem like a difficult decision, especially if you’re not sure whether either of those would satisfy you. Maybe you feel okay about your current job and don’t want the added responsibility of the promotion, but you do appreciate the better pay that comes with it. You might feel stuck. However, there is so much more you could think about. Have you considered moving into an entirely different field altogether? Or a side-hustle - A way to make money in your free time, alongside your current job? Perhaps immersing yourself in a hobby to shift your focus away from the time spent doing something you don’t like as much? There is a big chance that there are many, many options in life that you’re not even aware of. Looking at the big picture instead of being focused only on what’s right in front of

you can help tremendously when making a decision. Looking at the grand scheme of things is not
only helpful for deciding what is important, but also helpful when forming an opinion. You need to know about all options or all
the aspects of a certain situation if you want to judge it properly. Furthermore, taking a step back also means
getting away from your own view and biases. When you let go of your own desires for a
moment, you might be reminded of the people around you and your duty to them. You might think that in the heat of the moment,
littering is not a big deal, but when you step back and think of the entirety of the
world, of the possibility of everybody else doing it, you finally see the smallness of
your desire to litter in comparison to the well-being of the world. As said before, the stoics thought that everything
in the world is interconnected and that the general well-being of the world improves your
personal well-being as well.

Thus, taking a step back and looking at the
world as a whole, instead of just your life, is tremendously important. When facing a choice, hardship, problem, or
change in life, you can inwardly ask yourself some questions. This can be in the moment, or later on, perhaps
when you’re thinking through your day, whether while out for a walk, or when journaling about
them - something Aurelius was a particular fan of! The most common questions to ask yourself
are: What could the long-term effects of my choice/action
be? How could someone else’s perspective on
this differ from mine? Do I know somebody in a similar situation
or with similar goals to mine that could help? Does my choice/action affect my well-being? Does it affect the well-being of those around
me? Are there any choices I have not considered
yet? Taking the time to consider all aspects of
the world helps yourself in the way that it helps you understand your actions, thoughts,
life, and choices more clearly - and it helps

yourself in a way that allows you to help the world. When you consider the whole picture, you will always have an overseeing view that leaves you free from unnecessary restraint, bias, or doubt. If you enjoyed this video, please make sure to check out our full philosophies for life playlist, and for more videos to help you find success and happiness using ancient philosophical wisdom, don’t forget to subscribe. Thanks so much for watching.

How To Think Clearly - Marcus Aurelius (Stoicism)

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How To Think Clearly - Marcus Aurelius (Stoicism)

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