Stoic Snippets: The Day Ahead

Welcome to Stoic Snippets, a wealth of wisdom in a matter of minutes. Inject your day with some stoic wisdom through a short reading designed to help you make the most of your life. Today's reading is from the Roman Emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius who reminds us that each day can be a challenge.

Transcript

Hey,

Welcome to Stoic Snippets,

Philosophy that is short in length but not in depth.

Today I have some wise advice from the philosopher king himself,

Marcus Aurelius.

Begin each day by telling yourself,

Today I shall be meeting with interference,

Ingratitude,

Insolence,

Disloyalty,

Ill will and selfishness,

All of them due to the offender's ignorance of what is good or evil.

But for my part,

I have long perceived the nature of good and its nobility,

The nature of evil and its meanness,

And also the nature of the culprit himself.

Who is my brother?

Not in a physical sense,

But as a fellow creature,

Similarly endowed with reason and a share of the divine.

Therefore none of those things can injure me,

For no body can implicate me in what is degrading.

Neither can I be angry with my brother,

Or fall foul of him,

For he and I were born to work together,

Like a man's two hands,

Feet,

Or eyelids,

Or the upper and lower rows of his teeth.

To obstruct each other is against nature's law,

And what is an irritation or aversion but a form of obstruction?

So this is a beautiful reading from his book Meditations,

And I consider three important parts to this reading.

Three parts I would like you to take into your day ahead of you.

1.

There is no promise that today will be challenge-free.

We should be prepared for that,

We should not expect the days that we have just to be carefree and easy.

2.

Just because people can be unkind,

Selfish and ignorant,

Doesn't mean that we should be.

We have the capacity to rise above these things,

And where we have the capacity,

We should exercise it.

3.

Those who come against us are still our brothers and sisters,

And we should treat them as such.

We should remember that each person is on their own path,

So we should be generous with our time,

And our compassion,

And our grace.

Do your best to remember these things and become bigger than the challengers and the challengers that you face today.

As Marcus Aurelius reminds us,

Our best revenge is to be nothing like them.

If you want to take this reading further,

Then why not consider leaving me a review where you let me know what challenges you face today and how you're going to overcome them.

Or check out my full-length course on Stoicism,

Entitled Stoicism,

The Beginner's Guide to Happiness.

See you soon.

Reviews

This was my first listen to stoic meditation and it was *chef’s kiss* perfect. I’m struggling with being in the middle of a conflict between two entries at work. I am the “worker bee” in the situation and waiting for a decision, but am drawn into meeting after meeting. This helped!

Marcus Aurelis....a master of words & mind. Meditations; listen, read & be changed.

Thank you for helping me see life with a different perspective.

I am just embarking on the wisdom of Stoicism and am grateful for this meditation. Thank you.

Lord I wish we had a leader like him today. At least we can internalize and act on his words ourselves. Thank you

Challenge to not react with anger at this moment in my fellow man is going to need extra ssupport. Sotry my thoughts are not coming out well.
I'm goimg to take your course, thank you 😊

I just love the content about stoicism. Thank you

Thank you for presenting this for me again, it’s such a powerful, natural and divine writing which I always need some reminding of and nudging towards 🙏🏻💕✨🌴

I have a problem trusting people so I'll use this and your other teaching to help with this.

Namaste, thank you for sharing this powerful meditation

As you said, short but deep. I will reflect on this over my day. Thank you.

Love Marcus Aurelius! Will look for more stoicism teachings!

Great little piece of wisdom. Thank you so much! 🙏🌷

I have often heard the beginning of this Quote but when hearing it in its entirety it shifts the the whole point, thanks

I like the short snippets and the way you record the quotes in a different tone of voice. Well done.

Thank you. I’ll now go to your recommended course for more insight.

Brilliant! I've studied many of the Greek philosophers, but not the Roman's. I need to get back to the classics! What a brilliant, spiritual -and very appropriate for our time- way to approach the day. Thank you 🙏