What Stoicism means to me
Posted: - Modified: | stoicism, philosophyOne of my friends told me that he couldn't quite square Stoicism and what he knew about me. The general impression of Stoicism is, well, the "stiff upper lip" sort of stoicism, and quite a few people have told me that I'm one of the happiest and most optimistic people that they know. So I figured I'd write about it a little.
2015-04-20d What does Stoicism mean to me – index card #stoicism
I get my understanding of Stoicism from people like Epictetus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, the people who translated their books, and more recent authors like William Irvine. The philosophy was pretty similar to how I saw the world growing up, and reading about the ancient Stoics (and similar schools of thought) helped me flesh out those thoughts further because I could take advantage of other people's insights.
I really appreciated having inspiring role models, time-tested tools, and a wider vocabulary for recognizing and working with my thoughts. I liked the validation of equanimity as a goal in itself (not just pleasure or happiness). I found negative visualization and other Stoic practices to be really good at helping you develop appreciation and deepen your joy. I liked the sharp delineation between things you can control and things you can't, and the radical freedom and responsibility this helps you realize.
More about equanimity:
2015-04-03d Equanimity – index card #philosophy #equanimity
On a related note, this might explain a little bit about the wonder that fills my universe:
2015-04-20c The glass is amazing – index card #philosophy #perspective
Anyway, so that's how that works for me!
2 comments
Aaron Wolfson
2015-04-22T22:39:33Z"Stoic" as a modern English word is totally different from what "Stoicism" originally was!
The sense of the word as one who willingly perseveres despite adversity is just a small part of the full philosophy.
Sometimes simplification isn't such a great thing.
sachac
2015-04-25T00:45:58Z=)
I like the idea of adversity as fuel for the fire. It makes sense to me, and I'm looking forward to seeing how that plays out.
Also, it's actually pretty fun messing with people's mental models of philosophy and happiness...