3 Things Stoicism Has Taught Me
How to seek good in bad things
For a quick review, Stoicism is a philosophy that teaches achieving peace of mind and happiness through virtue. The old philosophy originated around the 3rd Century BC and continues to be practiced as a lifestyle.
I have divided this entire article into three segments of three different lessons I have learned from what I have read, watched, and learned about Stoicism.
Gratitude
I’m beginning to notice that an important attitude, that of appreciation, is disappearing in people. I’m not talking about appreciating the gift one got on one’s birthday although that’s a little bit too, but I’m talking about appreciating the situation you are in no matter how bad it might be. I’ve heard that people who are sick with depression are advised not to say things like “others have it worse.”
I don’t think I’ve ever suffered from depression, but I’m sure I’ve had better and worse days, and it has almost always made me at least a little bit better about the fact that others definitely have it worse. I’m writing this article on my computer, in a warm apartment, full because I just made myself breakfast. On the one hand, it is average, but on the appreciation side, it is a luxury.
There is a quote by the now-retired but very famous soccer player Zinedine Zidan:
“When I was young I cried because I had no shoes to play soccer with my friends. But one day I saw a man with no foot and then I realized how rich I was.”
Be grateful, be thankful for who you are, what you are, where you are, and what you have.
“Happiness is not getting what you want but appreciating what you have” Rabbi Hyman.
I don’t mean to say that you don’t have to do anything because there will always be something you can be grateful for, on the contrary I mean to say that as a human being you have a ton of opportunities life itself is a gift we should appreciate. Since you can have a bad mood without much reason you can also have a good one without much reason.
Now here’s a little math, the number of people that have been born over time is about 100 billion that’s a lot and now listen the number of people that could ever be born is 10 to the power of 30 the number we get from that is about a nonillion (I’ve never heard of such a number either but that’s what it is) This fact means that there will never be the same person as you but that’s not the point here.
We are the lucky ones who are given to die because we are the lucky ones who are given to live, most people who could ever live will never be born again. Celebrate life because you won it in the lottery. You can thank god you can thank fate but the most important thing is for you to appreciate not only who you are, what you are, but even the plain and simple fact that you are.
Acceptance
Life would be beautiful if we could appreciate the simplest things, but unfortunately, life is not predictable, and this is what makes us sad. It’s impossible to predict if it’s going to rain in a while while we’re outside. In the scenario that it does fall what can you do? You don’t have an umbrella you are cold and you want it home. Most likely what you will start doing is complaining “What kind of weather is this?” Despite the fact that you know very well that rain is good for nature you will complain.
Will complaining change anything? No. Definitely no. You can call out the clouds and the rain will continue to fall from them. Well, then what can you do?
You weren’t prepared for this, but it’s the way things are. Accept this fact that it is so. Is that all there is to it? That’s all it takes to not feel bad about the fact that it’s raining, but see further how many options you have. You can wait out this rain somewhere, you can increase your pace and maybe even start running.
While we have no control over how life will turn out, what kind of people we will meet on our way, or what the weather will be like, we do have a say in how we react to a situation.
Discipline
The Stoics place great emphasis on self-discipline and self-control. Part of Stoic self-discipline is the aforementioned acceptance of reality. A bit more of the aforementioned gratitude as well, well, because, for example, the Stoics talk about how a humble yet happy life can be lived. The Stoics have an interesting premise, they believe that every person should strive for a state of apatheia, that is, a state of freedom from destructive emotions.
This state can be achieved by understanding that it is not reality that affects our emotions, but our judgments about that reality. That is, the attitude that life is what it is, but it doesn’t matter what it is our reaction to it matters.
Part of this discipline is embodied in another Stoic tenet, that of living in accordance with nature. Stoics appreciate nature, they believe that its natural order is something we should follow. Whenever I’m somehow working and don’t want to do it I’m reminded of certain words of Marcus Aurelius:
“[…] Were you created for lounging in bed and abiding in idleness? ‘But this is more pleasant. Did you come into the world to be idle for pleasure? Was it not for action and work that you were created? ‘But it’s more pleasant. So did you come into the world to use pleasure? Do you see, do you not, that plants, birds, ants, spiders, bees each do their own thing and according to their strength work to arrange the world? And you don’t want to fulfill the duties of man? […]”
Brilliant is this piece, it’s not about a citizen of a country just a human being like you and me. We were created to work it is simply an activity that as a human being should be done because that is what we are in this world for.
The values and views that can be gleaned or noted in the philosophy of Stoicism do not end with these three, but I chose three that appealed to me the most.
