Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century BC. Stoicism is a philosophy of personal ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world.
It was popular in ancient roman empire. Some of the most famous stoics include Seneca( Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, died 65AD), Marcus Aurelius(Roman Emperor 161–180AD) and Epictetus (Greek Philosopher 50–135 AD).
What’s interesting is that the teachings of the stoics stand the test of time. They are as relevant today as they were 2000 years back.
To get started it’s good to look at some of the teachings which are like a foundation to stoicism.
1. Focus on What You Control:
“Of things some are in our power, and others are not. In our power are opinion, movement toward a thing, desire, aversion (turning from a thing); and in a word, whatever are our own acts: not in our power are the body, property, reputation, offices (magisterial power), and in a word, whatever are not our own acts” : Epictetus, Encheiridion
This is the most prominent principle in Stoicism. The Stoics realized that there are things we control, and things we don’t control. To get to the good life, we should focus on the things we control, and accept the rest as it happens. We can’t change what already is, but we can choose what to do with the given circumstances. Let’s focus on that.
What do we have control over then?
Only two things: our voluntary actions and judgments.
According to the Stoics, we can decide what events mean to us (our judgments) and how we want to react to those events (our actions).
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.
Our body, for example, is not completely under our control. We can surely influence it with our lifestyle choices, but we can’t control it fully. There are other things which influence our body that we have no control over such as genes, early exposure, or injuries.
So, what we are doing when we are angry over the person who said “x” to us is: we are focusing/giving energy to what is not in our control: “Other person’s actions”.
What instead is in our control?
- How we react to the situation by focusing only on what we control: our thoughts, judgements, perceptions and actions.
Can we ever be hindered if we give energy only to the things we control.
And as long as we are working for other’s good, doing what’s true to our nature what’s there that can harm us?
For instance: Here, any rational person would recognize that, the other person’s actions are not in his control and so would never lose his temper.
This applies to all the little things we complain about all day long.
So, every time we find ourselves complaining:
It’s worth asking ourselves:
Is it something i can change?
Yes! — →Then make necessary changes by doing what you can — → now, why worry? You have done what you could.
No! — → then why worry?
2. Amor Fati:
Love of one’s fate.
Most of the unhappiness in life can be traced to the things not happening as we would have wanted them to. So, if things go our way we are happy and if they don’t we are unhappy.
Someone rightly said: “Desires are the contract we make with ourselves to be unhappy”.
But, how often do things happen the way we want them to?
And how often do things happen differently and later we are grateful for it?
And how much of it is in our control? Let’s see.
- Any rational person would understand that we can’t change what has already happened.
- Most of the time, the way we want our life to be depends on a lot of factors we don’t control.
- Every rational person would agree that: Everything that happens is natural in some way meaning it happens according to laws of nature.
So, is it not possible to accept completely what happens?
Is it not possible to love our fate and embrace what happens?
Can we not use what happens as a fuel for the forward journey?
