A Practice That Will Allow You To Live As A Stoic

Think back to the last time you were suffering from a cold or a stomach virus.

Do you ever remember thinking about the times you weren’t so sick and felt like dying?

You ask yourself: “Why did I ever take my healthy body and mind for granted?”

A splitting headache reminds you of the days where you felt great. A constant runny nose and sore throat reminds you of the times where you didn’t have to blow your nose and cough out phlegm all day and night.

You think to yourself that after all this is over, you’ll start caring more about your health and body. You’ll start eating better and will practice gratitude for all the days you are healthy. You won’t ever take anything for granted, not after everything you’ve been through.

A week goes by and you’re all better. You no longer suffer from fevers, headaches, constant trips to the bathroom to meet your bowel movements.

Everything feels bright and new. You can finally breathe, you can finally think, you can finally move around and LIVE.

You vaguely remember something you promised to yourself while laying incapacitated on your bed.

You try to remember what it was for a second, shrug, and proceed to munch on your glazed doughnut, down a shot of vodka mixed with Red Bull and stay up all night playing video games until the sun’s judgment exposes you with its piercing beam of morning light.

Will humanity ever learn?

Learn to be grateful?

For the things we currently have, instead of looking far off into the distance, looking for the next best thing that, if we can possess, will leave us infinitely satisfied?

Instead of imagining about the things we could have, could we perhaps learn to appreciate the things we have now?

We know that we have an insatiable hunger, an infinitely deep and dark hole in our hearts, yet we continue to look for ways to fill our stomachs. Our stomachs being the physical desires of the world.

We know already that we won’t feel utter bliss and experience a happy ever after when we get to the things we so desperately want. We’ve seen them throughout history.

The people who chased after the physical desires they wanted and got them only felt cheated at the finish line. The things they chased after didn’t mean anything because they imagined a different experience and feeling. Because their underlying belief, during their entire journey, was that they would feel a sort of happiness that lasted forever.

“If I could only get [Insert Desire Here], I would be so happy with life”.

Money, power, status, expensive goods, fame. We’ve seen people reach the pinnacle of success defined by humanity, and we watch with awe as drama inevitably unfolds.

People who have gotten everything they’ve ever wanted don’t know what’s next. They were told that if they could reach the apex of the mountain, they would find life a breeze. If they could have everything they ever wanted, wouldn’t they feel infinitely satisfied when that moment came?

We are very surprised when we hear that celebrities, who have received everything we were told we could ever want, have problems with depression, relationships, drugs and suicide.

If it were so great at the top of the mountain that we’re all climbing, why are people voluntarily jumping off?

Some of us, who are climbing the mountain, will see all the bodies falling from the mountain and choose to climb down. They are the people who started the journey with the rest of us and yearned for what society deems successful, saw that it was an empty promise at the top and consciously chose not to participate.

The rest of us, who are trying to scale this mountain as quickly and desperately as possible to see what is at the top, turn our heads to see the bodies falling from the top, blink off the shock and continue to climb passionately, only to reach our own ultimate, bitter and familiar surprise.

Before we know it, we start teetering off the edge of the mountain ourselves.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t look toward the future and develop yourself as an individual. You obviously need some sort of drive, some sort of assurance to know that the present suffering will be fruitful in the near future.

But the chase for material and shallow things, the intense desire for things that will not truly give you fulfillment, is destroying you and you don’t even know it.

You neglect your family and friends to blindly chase money, prestige, and fame. Your passion for things leaves behind a burning trail that destroys things unknowingly, until you finally reach your “destination”, look back and see how much you sacrificed to get there.

Was it worth it? I hope you will know the answer by then.

So here’s what you came for.

How do you live as a Stoic? You can read about it, you can meditate on the words, but how do you really understand a fraction of what a true Stoic feels throughout the day?

It’s simple, free and everyone can try it. It’s a practice that can improve your life drastically.

Try to not eat or drink water for an entire day.

Now for the people who clicked this article, skimmed a few words, and looked for “THIS ONE THING”, it really wouldn’t make sense. The people who come here looking for this one thing will only pay attention to the destination, the reward, the secret that will give them life’s greatest blessings.

They’ll miss the entire point — they’re still desiring for something that cannot be attained. Reading the entire piece up to this point and understanding the core of the message had to be experienced in order for this line to make sense.

“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.”

— Greg Anderson

They’ll read this line, scrunch up their face, and immediately close the browser tab. They’ll curse me for wasting their precious time, ignore my advice and will move onto another article that also “promises to show them secrets that no one else around you knows”.

They’ll never learn and they’ll always keep looking for the secret. It’s too bad — it was right in front of them the entire time.

So how does fasting for an entire day help you think and live as a Stoic would?

Many of us treat eating as a chore, as something we need to do because we need energy to go on or to satisfy the physical pain that you feel from hunger pangs.

Many of us use money like it’s nothing, spending it mindlessly on needless things, on things we don’t want or need but just feel like we need to have.

Many of us see our houses and wish for bigger, grander and more extravagant houses. We’ve had beds to sleep in and roofs covering our heads for so long that we don’t even realize how lucky we are to even have a house.

Imagine due to some unfortunate circumstances in which everything in your life goes to hell and you end up broke, alone and homeless. The worst outcome that you ever imagined for yourself is now face to face with you. There is no more down — you’ve reached rock bottom.

You’ll realize how privileged you were to be able to feed yourself whenever you wanted to in the past. How you never had to worry about clothing yourself and having a permanent sense of security.

You’ll realize how great you had it when you had family members around and regret the times where you neglected and fought them.

You’ll realize how amazing your life was when you had a roof over your head that you could call home that could shelter you during harsh winters and protect you from the dangers lurking in the dark outside.

And you’ll realize that the next dollar that someone donates to you on the street will mean infinitely more than the paycheck you received every two weeks.

You’ll realize that even a bowl of rice after not eating for 24 hours will taste like a gourmet meal. You’ll learn to enjoy every precious bite of every meal without having to buy an expensive meal.

You’ll realize that the next sip of water will be that much more rejuvenating and refreshing. You’ll learn to taste the sweetness of only one sip of water.

And you’ll see how lucky you were to even have the things that you always took for granted. And you’ll see that you’re perfectly fine and happy with the things you currently have. You always can and will be.

Maybe that’s exactly what kind of experience you need to think and live like a Stoic.

If you practiced gratitude for the things you have instead of greed for the things you could have, how much lighter would the burden of life be?

“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.”
― Seneca

PS: I realized that this piece sounds very religious and spiritual, but none of that is my concern. There is no ulterior motive here, no invitation to my cult or to your local church, mosque or synagogue. :) But if you’d like to inquire about joining, shoot me an e-mail…