Please note,
If you are only going to be going through the motions with this meditation,
You know,
Kind of listening to it without really bringing your full attention to it,
Then turn it off.
This meditation will not work unless you make the mental commitment right now to stop everything else and give 100% of your focus to this process.
Whether you've listened to this 5 times or 5,
000 times,
You must participate in this exercise as if it was your first time.
So,
Are you 100% committed to doing this?
If you're still listening,
I'll take that as a yes.
The Roman Emperor and Philosopher King Marcus Aurelius said,
Quote,
The present moment is the only thing of which anyone can be deprived,
At least if this is the only thing he has and he cannot lose what he has not got,
End quote.
You don't have to try to be in the moment,
Because you already are,
Aren't you?
Listen to the sounds that come to you effortlessly.
You don't actually have to try to hear them.
It's almost like the reflection in a mirror.
Your consciousness just reflects the contents that arise inside it.
In a moment,
I'm going to ask you to take a deep breath in and hold it for 10 seconds.
Then I'm going to ask you to sigh it out and let your mind reflect anything it wants.
You have nothing to do.
Take a deep breath in now and hold it.
Sigh it out and let your consciousness be like a mirror for whatever arises.
It is possible to practice acceptance in every moment.
You're not always in control of your thoughts,
At least your involuntary thoughts,
Or your moods,
But you can always say to your emotions rationally that they are welcome here.
That choice is within your control.
This is the heart of Stoicism.
Now today is a new day and you can bring to it a brand new intention.
Yesterday had the same freshness as today does and tomorrow will be the most precious day of your life too,
If fortune permits that it comes.
But for a moment,
Looking back to yesterday,
What difficulties or challenges did you have that seem smaller now?
Why do you have different emotions now than you did yesterday,
If you're the same person?
Going a bit further,
Let's look back over the last year of your life.
What difficulties or challenges did you encounter that seem now smaller today?
Why did they bother you so much at the time,
But not right now?
What's changed?
At the time these problems might have seemed permanent or insurmountable.
Let's switch to the future.
In the next year,
What are the biggest challenges you will likely face?
Imagine that they are going to be much harder than you currently anticipate.
Will you be able to cope?
And how will you cope?
Just as yesterday is a memory,
And everything from the last year is a memory,
So too the events that will happen in the future will one day be memories.
Now thinking about today,
This day,
The day ahead,
What is likely to upset you or trigger you?
Are there any people that you think you will encounter that will rub you the wrong way?
Will there be any episodes of frustration or boredom that come up for you?
What will make you angry?
What will make you feel hopeless or helpless?
How do you see yourself dealing with these situations?
Contemplate for just a moment the worst things that could realistically happen to you today.
Would you feel like a victim if this were to come true?
Zoom out and see the challenges you might face today from the perspective of a different life form on a different planet.
How serious are your problems?
Maybe they are genuine problems that need to be addressed,
But there will surely be some that feel a lot heavier than they actually are.
The Stoic saw life as a great play,
Where the writer puts us into challenging situations to see how valiantly we can respond.
Our duty is to play our part well,
As an actor,
And not to complain too much about the writing of the play.
That is not up to us.
When we see ourselves as a victim in life,
We are essentially asking God,
Or the writer of our play,
To give us a new role,
A new life,
A new story arc.
But this is ridiculous.
You are an actor on the great stage.
You are not the creator of it.
So instead,
Focus your attention on the following question.
How can you play your part better than you currently are?
What do you think you will complain about today?
What do you think you will wish to be different than how things actually are?
Is this wise?
Seneca instructed us to live our days as if they may be our last.
This doesn't mean we live today in a way that would resemble our last day on earth,
Where we prepare for the end.
Today will almost certainly not be your last day.
However it could be.
There is a chance,
A definite chance that today could be your last day on earth,
Even if things seem like they are going well.
If a huge number of people listened to this morning meditation,
At least one person would die the same day.
And that person may very well not see it coming.
This is not morbid or pessimistic.
This is a statistical reality.
We remind ourselves of this fact so that we can see the preciousness of life more accurately.
Life is sacred.
This moment is all we have.
It is the universe.
It's your universe.
Keep this thought in mind throughout the day to guide you on how you can spend your time more wisely.
Everything you own or cherish can be taken away from you in a moment.
So what else is there to do other than cherish the fact that this has not happened yet?
Everyone you love will be dead within a hundred years.
What else is there to do other than be kind?
Every challenge you have will one day be a memory.
What else is there to do than create memories you can be proud of?
May you have a virtuous day.
I will see you back here later for the Stoic Quest Evening Meditation.
