Wednesday — Stoicism has its ups and downs.
So today was a lot like Monday. I stayed at home, sick, and read the morning text. As I was reading, I realised that the message behind this reading resonated with me in a way that the others hadn’t. It was about retreating within oneself as a form of protection or relief, instead of going on a holiday to somewhere nice. It was a message about mindfulness, about finding peace and ease of mind. It, quite vividly, brought to mind the idea of meditation, a Buddhist technique.
The handbook discusses combating negative emotions by recognising their early symptoms and separating oneself from them. The parallels between today’s morning text, and the lessons that Buddhism teach about mindfulness, are massive. Stoicism, at least its attitude to mindfulness, is something I can get behind.
So, today, I made my goal to be mindful. If something, like the large amount of homework I had, began to frustrate me, I tried to recognise that if I let myself become frustrated, I would be in a bad mood for the rest of the day, and would find it harder to complete my homework.
The evening texts were two short writings, covering judgement. The first, which stated that removing the judgement “I have been harmed” removes the harm itself. The second said something very similar, about judgement being the cause of most of our problems. I have to disagree. If I am mugged in an alleyway, and am severely injured, so that I am now confined to a wheelchair for the rest of my life, I cannot simply tell myself that “I am not harmed,” and then get out of my wheelchair and run a marathon. And even though a stoic might say, “Well, you cannot control whether or not you’re in a wheelchair now, so you shouldn’t let it affect you,” I can do other things, like taking legal action to try and put my assailant or assailants behind bars.
Under the Summary section of the handbook, it recommended that I take 5–10 minutes to meditate. Coincidentally, without reading that task, I chose to meditate for 15 minutes earlier today, as I was feeling very stressed and under pressure. Upon reading the task, I felt a sense of pride in myself. Maybe I shouldn’t have, but I’m not perfect.
I’m still in no way sold on Stoicism, but I’m glad that it has some aspects that aren’t in conflict with me.
Maybe Thursday and Friday will bring something new, something different.
