Stoicism: What It Is and How It Can Help You

Hi,

I'm Mark and I wanted to share a short introduction to something I genuinely love.

Stoicism.

Now I'm not exaggerating when I say it changed the way I see the world.

I use it every single day.

Think about it when things go wrong,

When people frustrate me,

When life doesn't quite go the way I planned.

I love it so much I actually have the four stoic philosophies tattooed right here on my arms.

Now of course I'm not telling you to go out and get tattoos.

But what I am saying is when I teach this,

I'm not teaching something I've just read about.

I'm teaching something that I live by and I have a few courses on it right here on Insight Timer.

So if you do want to go deeper after this,

They're there for you.

So what actually is stoicism?

First,

Let's clear something up.

When people call someone stoic,

They usually mean cold,

Unfeeling,

Or someone who bottles everything up and shows nothing.

That's not what this is.

In fact,

That's pretty much the complete opposite of what this is.

Stoicism is a practical philosophy of life that began in ancient Greece around 300 BC and it was developed by three very different men.

There was a former slave called Epictetus who owned nothing and yet produced some of the most profound wisdom the ancient world ever recorded.

There was a wealthy Roman senator called Seneca,

Who wrote beautifully about time,

Grief,

And how to live well.

And then probably most famously of all,

A Roman emperor called Marcus Aurelius,

Arguably the most powerful man in the world at the time,

Who spent his private journals reminding himself to stay humble,

Stay kind,

And stay human.

So three completely different lives,

And yet they all arrived at the same core idea.

You cannot control what happens to you,

But you can always control how you respond.

That's it.

That's the kind of the heart of Stoicism.

The Stoics drew a clear line between what is up to us thoughts,

Our choices,

Our attitude,

Our effort and what is not up to us.

Other people's behaviour,

Outcomes,

Circumstances,

Things that we simply cannot change.

They argued that most of our suffering,

Most of our anxiety and frustration comes from confusing the two,

From spending our energy on things outside our control while ignoring the one thing we always have control over,

Which is ourselves.

Stoicism isn't about suppressing how you feel.

It's about not being enslaved by it.

It's about meeting life,

Especially those hard parts,

With clarity and a quiet steadiness that doesn't quite depend on everything going our way.

And I want to leave you with something you can actually do right now,

Just a really quick exercise.

So just think of something that's been bothering you lately,

Something that's been taking up space in your mind.

If you've got it,

Just ask yourself honestly,

Is any part of this actually within my control?

If it is,

What's one thing you could do about it?

If it isn't,

Can you see that your suffering isn't coming from the situation itself?

But from your resistance to it.

That's stoicism in action.

Not a concept,

Not a philosophy from a dusty old book.

A living,

Breathing tool you can use right now,

Today,

In your actual life.

That's why I love it and that's why I teach it.

If this has sparked something,

Do come find me on Insight Timer,

Because I'd love to take you deeper.

I'm Mark and thank you for being here.