Stoicism 101: Philosophy Essentials for Beginners

1. Introduction: Hi, my name is Pat, and I'm immensely grateful to you for choosing this course. This course is an attempt for me to distill a life-changing ideas from the best resources on stoicism and philosophy into simple and digestible lessons. Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy that was established by Zeno of CDM in the early third century BC. It is a simple approach to overcome a destructive emotions and acting with reason. The Stoic philosophy is predominantly about living ethically by practicing reason and logic. Also at emphasizes on living in accordance with nature. Latest stoic philosophers, such as Seneca, Epictetus, give importance to cultivating virtues as they are sufficient to bring happiness to us and the people around us. The main premise was to shun all the moral corruption and be inspired to live exchange. The philosophy has been practiced by both historical and modern men, including artists, kings, precedents, authors, and entrepreneurs. Stoicism provides useful tools and practical strategies to navigate to everyday problems and living a more meaningful and happy life. If you want to transform our lives, then learning philosophy is not enough. We need to practice it as well. We can seek inspiration from Marcus Aurelius, the great Roman Emperor, who reflected daily on the essential tenets of philosophy by writing personal notes to himself. In this way, he persuaded himself daily to stay on the right path by repairing to himself his observations and the lessons he learned, touching the core tenets of stoic philosophy. As Tony Robbins rightly said, repetition is the mother of skill. We can change our beliefs and enhance our mental skill set by repairing the important learnings everyday to our cells. In the following lessons, I've extracted the wisdom from the best resources on stoicism and philosophy, a form that is easy to digest and consume. The repetition of the priceless gems and core tenets of stoicism in these lessons as intentional. In order to help you learn and internalize them in a quicker way. I'm shorter, condensed, timeless knowledge in these short yet impactful lessons will assist and guide you in navigating through the complexities that come with modern living. The fundamentals to attaining practical wisdom and living a good life will never change. And that's why Stoicism has proven to be such an indispensible philosophy, to learn the art of living, to make sure that these lessons stick, I highly encourage you to complete the written exercises for each lesson and the accompanying worksheet to deepen your knowledge and stoicism. As you go through these lessons, some patterns will emerge when internalized. They will guide you in your quest to living a virtuous and happy life. Once you're done watching this course, I'll be grateful if you pay forward by recommending it to your loved ones, as you will learn in the following lessons, cultivating a discipline to serve and contribute. Not only will help humanity, but we'll add immense value, meaning and purpose, your life as well. Last but not the least, keep coming back to this course whenever you get a chance. As Robin Sharma has so eloquently put, education is inoculation to disruption. As you learn more, you can achieve more. I'll be honored if this course ends up becoming your quick go-to resource for recalibrating to the Stoic mindset as you go ahead on your journey. I hope you enjoy watching and learning from these lessons as much as I've enjoyed writing and recording them. As always, wishing you Excellence and everlasting success. 2. Lesson 1 | The Three Stoic Disciplines: The foundation of stoicism as built on pre, essentially disciplines, the discipline of perception. That is, how we see and perceive the world around us. That discipline of action, that is their decisions and actions we take and to what end. And the discipline of well, that is how we deal with the things we cannot change, attain clear and convincing judgment, and come to a true understanding of our place in the world. The stoics tell us that by controlling our perceptions, we attain mental peace and clarity by doing actions that are proper and just, we become more effective and faculty wearing when an acceptance, we find the power, wisdom, and strength to deal with anything the world throws at us. It was a belief that strengthening people in these three disciplines would help cultivate and them resilience, grit, personal power, and profound joy. Stoicism was born in a terminal to us ancient world, where the everyday life was highly unpredictable. Hence, its primary aim was to provide effective and pragmatic tools people could use to deal with the daily life and thus ensure their well-being. The Stoics believed that the most important human problems and issues faced by people, whether they be of the past or in the future, will remain the same as they were sure that both nature and human existence are never radically altered. Their mantra was one day is as all these. And this has proved to be true even today, as these disciplines have stood the test of time, it will be in our self-interest when we come into them and abide by them as we live our lives. 3. Lesson 2 | Logos: The teachings of Marcus Aurelius and other ancient philosophers were built around a central aspect of logos. Logos that roughly translates to reason, is considered as an essence that gives foam and divine order to all the forms of life and the universe. It reflects that all things happen for a reason. Logos can be considered as an underlying master plan that orchestrates all the events that happen in this world, whether they are good or bad. We should have faith that all the things happening in our lives are happening for the best. The concept of logos encourages us to see a silver lining, even when we are in the midst of chaos and storms of adversities. Michael single asks a compelling question in his book, The Surrender Experiment. Good. Am I better off making up an alternate reality in my mind and then fighting with reality to make it be my way? Or am I better off letting go of what I want and serving the same forces of reality that managed to create the entire perfection of the universe around me encode, we need to have faith that everything is divinely orchestrated in our lives when we believe we are all a part of logos and will remain to be even after we die, our fear of death evaporates. If we look in the spiritual light, we're all eternal beings to paraphrase, when dire, they are infinite spiritual beings having a temporary human experience. Like other things, even our depth is planned by logos and can happen anytime. Hence, ready to live our lives in the best way we can and strive to become more productive and the best versions of ourselves. But also we need to learn to let it go and become adaptable with regard to the events in our daily lives, meetings with people and other activities that take away our time. As even these time taking and seemingly irrelevant activities are happening for a reason. Since everything is being governed by logos and by reasoning and order, it makes sense for us to approach everything in our lives with a calm and analytical mind rather than being swept away by our emotions and feelings. The human emotions, especially the negative ones, can be a serious threat to reason. So in your daily life, if you feel stressed or overwhelmed, then the best strategy is to meditate on logos and the grand scheme of things. We need to understand that both pain and suffering are a part of a bigger plan as well. When we complain about them, they disrespect and disregard the logos. That brings more pain and suffering to us. Instead, we should accept things the way they are and move on. When we trust logos, we get rid of all the fields, fears of that pain and suffering. They stop hearing the work that we do for a living and resenting and questioning our place in the society. Because we truly believe that everything is a part of a grander, flawless plan. 4. Lesson 3 | Setting the Right Goals: It's worth investing our time, money, and energy on learning philosophy. The secret you living a good life enriched with fulfillment is not to go to your dream school, get a prestigious degree, and secure a high paying job. But rather, it is to learn the art of living through philosophy. Having a philosophy is analogous to having a roadmap. It helps us navigate through the ups and downs of life and find treasures that hold the deepest meaning to us. Philosophy calls for introspection and defining goals that align. But what we desire, this prevents us from having any regrets towards the end of our lives. In this world of constant distractions and countless ways where our attention is Rob from us. We can rely on stoicism to help us and setting goals that align with us. The path of stoicism is that off moderation, it neither endorses life of misery and poverty, nor a life of luxury and hedonism. A stoic enjoy the pleasures that life has to offer, but he does not become dependent on them for his happiness. Stoicism teaches us that we should never rely on external objects for happiness as it is short-lived. Instead, we have to realize that the happiness and joy that we are seeking is always within us. The Stoics had two primary goals, watch you and tranquility. They considered these the foundational pillars for living a good life. Being virtuous is important because unlike animals and other beings, we have the ability to reason. And you must put it to good use. As our actions have the potential to affect the people around us. Live in a virtuous life. Not only helps us, but also helps the people around us. Tranquility is simply translates to eliminating all the negative emotions within us. In this way, we are embedded charge of ourselves and don't let these negative emotions affect our decision-making ability and sabotage our success, are able to gain clarity and difficult situations. The Stoics always believed that a mind that is calm and free of negativity can tackle any kind of obstacles that come up on the way. 5. Lesson 4 | Converting Obstacles Into Opportunities: When things don't go our way and we face obstacles, they get angry and frustrated. And that leads to experiencing a plethora of negative emotions. But if we change the lens through which we see obstacles, then we understand that these obstacles are in fact blessings that lead us to create a success. What stands in the way actually becomes the way any obstacle can be converted into an advantage when we approach it through the eyes of a stoic and focus on taking these three important steps. Number 1, perception. We need to detach from the obstacle and look at it objectively. Instead of clouding your approach by taking things personally, imagine that you are giving an advice to a friend. We will never be able to turn our obstacles in Duan advantage unless we control our emotions. Preparing ourselves in advance for the worst-case scenarios help us remain calm when the circumstances are not in our favor and things don't go our way. Imagine how your mentor or a person of infinite wisdom would act. What approach would he or she take towards the obstacle? By changing the lens through which we see an obstacle, we start appreciating it and become aware of the hidden advantages that come with it. Sometimes it's all about looking at the larger context and knowing that the obstacle in itself is truly an important number to action. Along with changing our perspective, we also need to focus on taking the right action as it will continue facing obstacles in our lives. Taking a single action every time is not enough. We need to cultivate a discipline of taking persistent actions. As Napoleon Hill has said, quote, The majority of people are ready to throw their arms and purposes or board and give up at the first sign of opposition or misfortune. A few carry on despite all a position until they attain their goal. These few other Ford's, garden, Gs, Rockefeller's and Edison's. There will be no heroic connotation to the word persistence. But quality is to the character of man, what carbon is to steal. And we need to keep taking action until we overcome the obstacle. We need to come up with a plan of action and stick to it with incredible discipline. If you're faced with a massive problem, then we need to take a step-by-step approach and focus on taking small actions on a consistent basis to the compound effect and momentum, we can be certain that we will win over the obstacles. In addition, once we understand that bigger obstacles also come with bigger weaknesses, we can learn how to turn obstacles against themselves. Number three, when the most essential ingredient that can make all the difference in the world is your win. Unless you have an unwavering faith in yourself and trust your capabilities, you will have a hard time overcoming obstacles. Well, as what geysers in our perceptions and actions. The ancients to it philosophers exercise there well, by focusing on the question, what things are in my control and what are not. We have little ability to control external factors and the environment around us. But what we do have control over is our internal state and the emotions that we are experiencing. As we face and overcome these internal obstacles. We get in a better position to face and overcome the external ones as well. A discipline will gives us the power to face the most difficult obstacles head on to a focused well, we don't let our personal situation and current circumstances discourage us from pursuing the most important goals in our life. We are able to unlock our true potential and break through the barriers of human possibility. 6. Lesson 5 | Practicing Philosophy: A true stoic as someone who has committed and dedicated to cultivating self-reliance mindset, mastering philosophy, and achieving long-lasting happiness. We all need philosophy to bring order and purpose in our lives. To philosophy, we can mold our personality so that it supports our best interests. We become disciplined, focused, and participate in actions that add value to our lives as well as others. It's like a compass that guides us and helps us and correcting our course where we get caught up and storms and loses sight of our destination. Without philosophy, we will never be able to detach from their anxieties and worries that emerge in US. Countless situations may arise in our daily lives where we may feel lost and needed wise. In those cases, we can look up to philosophy and cultivate wisdom so that we make better decisions. Not only does philosophy help us in overcoming obstacles, but also helps us in the process of healing. Philosophies soothes us when we are feeling down, as Marcus Aurelius reminded himself, and runoff is reflections. And not to think of philosophy as your instructor. Brasses poach an egg white, that relief of Dalmatia as a soothing ointment, a warm lotion. There are some people who spend a great amount of time on learning philosophy, but they never put it into action. Philosophy is meant for education and implementation, not for entertainment. And important teaching mentioned in the book, the law of attraction, the basics of the, of the teachings of Abraham by Easter eggs Is that good words not teach and only life experienced teachers, but the combination of life experience coupled with words that define and explain, can enhance the experience of learning and go. Philosophy can be your manual for life, but only when, when you engage in action and it loses its purpose when you don't put it into practice. Senegal teaches us that happiness cannot be attained by something external and materialistic, but rather it can be experienced with a practice of philosophy. Let go of all the distractions and temptations and dedicate your time and energy to the study and practice. Philosophy. Become a person of substance and integrity towards yourself and others. A person who has come intellectual and giving an idea for the society. 7. Lesson 6 | The Pursuit of a Good Life: For Epictetus, the primary goal of philosophy was living a good life rather than understanding the world. And that started with our turning in our tranquility. Embracing this tranquility within meant conforming to nature, appreciating and except and logos and living by the hepatitis observed that there are three stages that we humans need to go to in order to achieve a good life. Number one, mastery of desires. We often think happiness is conditional and is based on the fulfillment of our desires. Our happiness is tied to other people and their behaviors. And when they don't respond to us in the way we expect them to, we end up disappointed and sad. The philosophers teachers, that if we base our happiness on others actions and reactions, we end up living a life of envy, anger, and resentment. Instead of setting unrealistic expectations from other people, we need to make sure that our expectations and judgments are reasonable. We need to make sure that our desires are in the realm of our own power. Our wants and desires can be controlled by us. But what we cannot control is how other people and the world respond to us. We can only control the internal and hence should let go of the external. Number 2 duties. We need to understand that a person is not an individual entity detached from the world, but he or she is an important contributor to it. We are the world and the world is us. Stoic philosophers referred to human beings as citizens of the world. And unlike other living beings, we have duties to perform. We have the capability to discern the purpose behind the divine orchestration of events and connect the dots. It's a prerogative for us human beings to understand the code connection of tanks. And hence, it's our duty to live a life that aligns with this truth. Our duties are measured by our relationships, and it's our responsibility to engage in pursuits that align with our core essence and nature and avoid the ones that swears from our path. Number three, right thinking. The third stage consists of cultivating the discipline of logic and disputation. Having the right way of thinking is essential to understand a person's duty towards his or her creator and bills. To make sure that our actions, factors and the people around us, we need to be logical and commit to learning how we can avoid deception and manipulation. We should stay away from making rash and hasty decisions that may have negative consequences. With right thinking and perspective, we can see things in the right light and appreciate their positive aspect, rather than focusing on the negative ones. Being logical and having a right mindset can be a lifesaver in difficult situations. 8. Lesson 7 | Freedom Leads to Happiness: Being free is an essential component of being happy. The power of reason can be liberating as it helps us. And focusing on the aspect of lives that we have control over and letting go of those that we cannot control. We have control over our attitude, choices and behaviors. And that's what we should exercise. Trying to control external circumstances such as other people and their behaviors, stock market and material possessions never work out in our favor. We have little to no control over certain situations, such as death, natural calamities, and sickness. And instead of fighting against it, we should surrender and let it go. We don't have control over them, and we only have control over our thoughts, actions, and reactions. True happiness can only be secured when you let go of the frustrating pursuit of things that we have no control over. Thich Nhat Hahn in his book, The Heart of the Buddha's teaching, right? Letting go gives us freedom. And freedom is the only condition for happiness. If in our heart they still claim to anything, anger, anxiety, or possessions, we cannot be free and code, whether it be our favorite garb getting chip, or some event as difficult as a loved one. Dying. Reason reminds us that ephemeral nature of things around us and the mortality of our human life. The humans try to avoid situations and people that cause us pain and despair. But reason reveals to us that it's not those things, but our perception towards those things that dictates a state of affairs. Hence, to reach a state of happiness. And important step that we can take is correcting are well perception and accepting things as they are. Epictetus to his philosophy, teaches us that controlling our desires and aversions is the key to living a happy life. When we let go of our judgment towards external circumstances and shift our perspectives to accepting things as they are and controlling our responses towards them. They experience true freedom and happiness. 9. Lesson 8 | The Four Cardinal Virtues: To become a stoic, we need to practice virtue and excellence in our lives and let them be our guide in the roller coaster journey of life. We need to be mindful of all the consequences of our actions, not only on others, but primarily on ourselves. Stoicism is not only about learning how to take the right actions, but also about how we can tap into the correct moral psychological dimension before we act. Word use not only help us in identifying obstacles, but they also help us and staying grounded and come. Here are the four cardinal virtues of stoicism. Number one, practical wisdom, overcoming obstacles and complex situations in the best way possible with the resources available in hand. Number 2, courage to not be swayed by desires and pleasures. And the word is right in all circumstances to do righteous actions, both physically and morally. Number 3, justice, to treat every individual as equal with fairness and kindness regardless of their financial and social status, caused color, creed, or ethnicity, number for temperance to exercise moderation and self-control in all aspects of life. 10. Lesson 9 | The Dichotomy of Control: The Stoics advise us to distinguish between tanks that we can control and tanks we cannot. We should let go and accept the tanks that are not under our control and focus on doing actions and the variables that we can control when we act virtuously with the best information that we have, using the best tools and resources and giving our best, then we have done our job and we should not have any other concerns lingering in our mind. The outcomes of those actions are not in our control. Think of favorable outcomes as a cherry on top of the cake. When we do inspired actions that are meaningful and when they're done from a place of alignment, we are on the right track to success. Sometimes this may involve suffering, but because our actions are meaningful to us via end up attracting happiness in the long run, the subtle art of happiness involves alignment with our actions and not with our results when we act, but virtues of stoicism and embrace the tranquility insiders, even if there are disturbances, obstacles, or chaos around us, we become the beacon of hope and happiness. Happiness is always within and we have access to it anytime. And if you want to make others happy, we need to generate the happiness within us. First, learning the art to be happy as one of the most selfless acts you can do. As Gretchen Rubin has remarked in her book, The Happiness Project, good, the belief that unhappiness as selfless and happiness as selfish, as misguided. It's more selfless to act. Happy. End goal. Both acceptance and letting go of the circumstances around us can make us happy. In the midst of dark times when you cultivate the light of happiness within you and share it with other people. Brightness follows soon. 11. Lesson 10 | Becoming a Life-Long Learner: Epictetus remarked that it is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks. He already knows. If we think that we are experts in our graph or our field of interests, we become susceptible to getting influenced by our ego. Instead of considering ourselves as a know it all, it's much better to humble ourselves. We should always consider ourselves as a learner, someone who's improving every day in his or her craft. In that way, we're always striving for growth and feeding our credit. Even if you are incredibly good at something, you can tame down your ego by accepting that there is someone in this world who has even better than you as the popular story goes, a man once went to a wise Zen master to seek wisdom and learn about attaining enlightenment. The master welcomed him and offer to discuss this over t. As t was served, the Zen master kept pouring tea even after the cup was filled. As a teacup overflowing, the visitor could not restrain himself and he longer and asked him to stop pouring as there was no room for more tea. The master smile and offered his gems of wisdom. Like this cup of tea, you are full of your own opinions and speculations as well. How can I teach you unless you empty your cup? This story is a great reminder for us that in order to learn something new, we need to unload all the previous knowledge with regard to this subject. First, we need to start with a fresh pair of eyes and a beginner's mind. There is a wise code by Sean reuse Suzuki Rashi. Code in the beginner's mind, there are many possibilities in the experts. There are few Code. When we work with other immensely talented people, are Eagle remains in check. We should always be open to learning new things and improving our craft. Something that stops us from improving our work and feeds our ego is pride. Pride and ego, our great friends, but our worst enemies. The shortcomings of pride, our dad, we stop learning and challenging and pushing our limits. We become overly sensitive to criticism. To become a perennial performer, we need to let go of our pride and ego and not let them affect our success. 12. Lesson 11 | Life Can Be Long : We get so busy in their realities and instant gratifications that we lose the essence of living. We get caught up in achieving our goals and tank that once we achieve them, will be happy. But there's hardly happens. We get into all kinds of materialistic pursuits. Thanking success means getting stuff, live scenes shot, and unfulfilled. Our goal should be a life of meaning and purpose, not one inclined to pursuing luxuries. 211 extraordinary life. We need to come it to self-education and self-improvement. We need mentors and coaches to guide us in the right direction. We can seek guidance and wisdom from philosophers, thinkers, and successful people through the books that they have written to self-education, we'll be on our path to positivity, prosperity, and success. This prolongs our life and enhances its quality. We have to identify our interests and only engage in work that makes us happy and fulfilled. And to use our strengths for the betterment of mankind through our work. Along with work, we also have to give importance to having fun. Overexertion will diminish our enthusiasm. There is no harm in indulging and pleasures. A healthy balance is what we should strive for. 13. Lesson 12 | Strengthening Our Inner Fortress: If you want to transform our lives and learning philosophy is not enough. We need to practice it as well. Only then we will be able to learn effectively from our life experiences. Marcus Aurelius realized this stood here, reflected daily on the essential tenets of philosophy by writing personal notes to himself. This was a way for him to use the voice of philosophy to strengthen himself and his personal voice. He wrote them for himself so that he could be in a better place psychologically and spiritually. In this way, he persuaded himself daily to stay on the right path by repeating to himself as observations and the lessons he learned, touching the core tenets of the Stoic philosophy. As Tony Robbins has rightly said, repetition is the mother of skill. This was the way for him to strengthen has core beliefs and mental skill set by repeating the important learnings everyday to himself. We can see that these meditations are akin to Spiritual Exercises for self-discovery and self-transformation. To writing these meditations, Marcus Aurelius was following the teachings of Epictetus, offering the fundamental principles of the Stoic philosophy everyday to a close observation of his meditations, we can distill down Three Dog models that can help us in navigating pragmatically in our own experiences without losing our Comm. These dogmas are being content with whatever happens. Being just and accepting of others. Being able to apply rules of discernment to our own inner representations of external circumstances. These dogmas correspond well with the three disciplines of stoic philosophy, perception, action, and when, when we live by these three dogmas and cultivate the three disciplines, we strengthen our inner fortress and develop the inner attitudes of acceptance to that divine orchestration, justice, serving others, and detachment by being objective. Marcus Aurelius engaged in the Spiritual Exercises of writing, made ancients every day so that he could bring these dogmas to live and internalize and live by them. And we can do the same for ourselves by dedicating some time every day to reflect on our life experiences and bridge the gap between philosophy and its practice by writing down our essential realizations and the lessons we learned from philosophy and life. In that way, we'll be able to live the philosophy pragmatically and enjoy and accept life as it unfolds. By doing the spiritual exercises, we get a chance to be in tune with our emotions, our core values, our awareness, our intuition, and our moral compass. We're able to zoom out and look at the bigger picture, and hence, work on building a better vision, not only for ourselves and our lives, but for the world and for the entire humanity. 14. Lesson 13 | Focusing on the Right Things: Epic Today's guided himself and his life by asking two essential questions. One, how do you live a happy and fulfilling life? And do, how can I be a good person? The single-minded passion is reflected in his teachings as with a strong point of epic, data's philosophy is focusing on our sales and our actions. Marcus Aurelius, who was also an office students, echoed this notion in his reflections when he wrote about what he learned from Epictetus. Code to put up with discomfort, have no time for slanders, encode. Epictetus always focused on living a good life. For him, a happy life, and a virtuous life where we focus on the right things for ourselves and others are synonymous. He teaches us that happiness and personal fulfillment are the byproducts of doing the right thing. Not all events that happen in our lives are in our control. And we need to cultivate acceptance towards fade and live as it happens, Epictetus teachings can be summed up into three core ideas. Knowing what we can control and mastering our desires, performing duties, and doing the right actions, and learning to think clearly about ourselves, our relationships, and our role within the larger community of humanity. 15. Lesson 14 | Modern Practices, Ancient Roots : The origins of modern cognitive behavioral therapy, CBT, can be traced back to the therapeutic practices in the ancient era of stoicism, a clear analogy can be observed between ancient philosophy and modern CBT as our various concepts and techniques that overlap between the two. The code by epoch Tetons, what upsets people is not tanks themselves, but their judgments about the things. It's commonly referred to within the literature on CBT. As it addresses the fundamental framework of CBT, which is understanding the relationship between cognition and emotion. It is a common misconception that stoicism is an intellectual philosophy or approach that doesn't count emotional responses. In reality, it encourages us to cultivate an attitude of indifference towards things and events that we don't have control over so that we can avoid unnecessary emotional discomfort and pain. The Stoics or emotional suffering as a consequence of giving more importance to these things and events, then they really deserved, along with errors and logic and reasoning. Stoicism not only accommodates emotions, but also encourages to cultivate a rational love towards humanity and the existence as a whole. The daily practice of recalling and rioting the essential tenets and dogmas or the philosophy align well with the modern practice of auto suggestion, affirmations, journaling, and the use of coping statements in CBT. Also the adoption of mindfulness meditation and modern CBT has deeper roots and stoicism where developing mindfulness towards our own faculty of thinking and the internal dialogue focusing on cultivating clarity in our thoughts and actions and embracing the present moment was encouraged. In addition to the fact that there are parallels between stoicism and modern psychotherapy. We also need to understand that learning philosophy helps us to look at the bigger picture. And hence, it plays an important role within the overarching context of the art of living. 16. Lesson 15 | The Captain of My Soul: James want Stockdale wherever the American prisoners of war in Vietnam and the unimaginable torture and brutality. He lived for years and during intense pain, both physical and emotional has only so liaise with the teachings of hepatitis that stop him from being broken and envision a life of sanity, again, in those dark hues Inspire of the various attempt of the interrogators to generate shame, fear, and guilt. Stogdill had only one focus to control his emotions and not given to them. Our emotions are our own and we have absolute voluntary control over them. And if we face situations where we don't have any control, we have to adapt. We cannot take responsibility for what happens around us. Where we can cast around us an invisible shield so that we protect our emotions. If they give up control over our emotions, will become powerless. And that's when we experience a true defeat. Stogdill made a valid point that the notions of good and evil only exist within our hearts. And what gives them meaning is within our will and our power. As a last verse of Ernest Henley's poem, Invictus goals. It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments, the scroll. I am the master of my fate and the captain of my soul. 17. Lesson 16 | Antifragility: We've all come across packages with the label fragile, handled with care. That means that if subjected to stress or carelessness, they would break. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, fragile is a easily broken or destroyed BY constitutionally delicate, lacking in vigor. When subjected to volatile situations, fragile things break. But there are times when volatility ends up benefiting the object instead of degrading it. The concept of anti fragility applies to things that benefit from harm caused by a volatile and adverse circumstances. Unlike fragile things that break under stress, anti fragile things gain advantage and become better. Some good examples are undergoing immense heat and pressure or time to become a priceless piece of diamond or the rock or a piece of marble that has to go countless blows of the chisel till it becomes a beautiful piece of anti fragility is fueled by unity. Even if the individual components may be fragile. When they get together, they can build a system that can be highly anti fragile in nature. For instance, people or businesses themselves can be considered fragile on their own. But when they work harmoniously in a system, they become unbeatable. When faced with a misfortune or natural calamity, people tend to unite and hence gains trend. We can train both our body and mind to be anti fragile. The quality of an anti fragile system is that it not only strengthens you when you face stresses or Shockley's, but also prepares you for any future possible adversities. This happens by the principle of overcompensation, which is the hallmark of anti fragility. Strength develops by overcompensating against adversities. Anti fragility may give you an added physical and mental strand, which you may not need right now. Hence, the time and energy that you spend on cultivating this trend may seem few tile and lacking intention. But if a situation demands in future where you are subjected to use it, whether it be carrying a huge piece of furniture when you move or facing a big obstacle in your business, where you need to come up with a quick and effective solution. All these efforts to become anti fragile payoff. If you want to achieve and maintain extraordinary success in this ever-changing and unpredictable world, then anti fragility is the most useful skill that he can Devin up. The ante refrigerated at develops from the chaos around, around us, actually helps us and preparing ourselves for that. The next time the same situation or circumstances arise, we are better equipped and ready to face them in this way. And fragility can act as a very valuable instrument and converting chaos to order and making a stronger and visor in the process. 18. Lesson 17 | Controlling Our Emotions : We think our emotions drivers because we feel that they are largely involuntary and we have no control over them. Are emotional, impulsive, sometimes work in our favor, and sometimes we end up doing actions that we regret later on. The Stoics explained that there are different causes of our emotions. And some of them include, are misaligned beliefs. According to Chrysippus, emotions are judgments that involve beliefs about value when he faced a situation that is not favorable. Or if we get results that are not in concurrence with our beliefs and desires will become susceptible to our emotions. If we don't keep a check on them, feelings of anger and jealousy or resentment may emerge within us as a consequence. Beliefs are patterns that we have cultivated over time. And because these emotions are driven by our beliefs, were responsible for these emotions are beliefs have contributed to the development of our character and the traits that we have gathered over time, whether good or bad. Hence, it would be wise for us to run a diagnostic check of our core values and beliefs. We can start with a blank slate and get rid of all the beliefs that don't servers by taking back control of their deep seated beliefs inside us and changing them. We are in a better control of the emotions that we experience. As you gently guide us towards experiencing positive emotions, live becomes easier and effortless for us. Esther Hicks and her book, The Astonishing Power of emotions, beautifully writes about the role of emotions in our well-being code. When you feel love or joy or any positive emotion, you are literally being the expanded version that life has caused you to become. When you feel fear, anger, or despair, or any negative emotion, you're not in this moment by virtue of whatever it is that you are giving your attention to, allowing yourself to be that new, expanded version. You're not letting yourself keep up with who you have become. 19. Lesson 18 | Philosophy Is for Life : Even though there are similarities between ancient philosophy and modern therapies such as CBT. There are some stark differences as well. While CBT, or a coaching session focuses on a short-term fix, adopting ancient philosophy is a lifestyle, a lifelong discipline to be cultivated and practiced every day. Cbt lasts for a few weeks or months. But in ancient times, it was advised to study philosophy every day to internalize wisdom and always be prepared to face challenges that life to at us. Philosophy not only helps us in managing mental disorders, but also helps us in navigating to life. As it is a recurrent therapy for the soul. Philosophy is not about prescription, but it's a lifestyle that requires a renewed commitment every day. To echo the thoughts of the ancient philosophers. Simple goals of reading self-help books, taking an online person Development Goals, participating in a session with a therapist or a life coach, and doing techniques such as goal setting are not enough. These approaches are more individualistic and what we need is a change in our perspective so that we can zoom out and look at the bigger picture. That may mean contemplating over the meaning of life, our existence, the universe as a whole, and what roles we play in it. The Stoics place a huge importance on being in harmony with the universe and the way it works. They firmly believe in the rational intelligence that permeates everything. Hence, in order to live a happy and peaceful life, they believed it was their duty. Act rationally with reason and logic so that they can be better aligned with the universe. The discipline of philosophy keeps us deep rooted into this truth. The Stoics believed in preparation of body and mind on a daily basis. So they are better equipped to face hardships, whether big or small. By training ourselves with the virtues of inner fortitude, acceptance, and committing to the study and implementation of philosophy every day. We ensure that we live a life that is good in always alive, that is an alignment with our inner truths. 20. Lesson 19 | Ask Better Questions: Times have changed drastically, but we can still go back to the ancient stoic philosophy to understand ourselves better and be able to live a much more happy and meaningful life. Plato's teachings can be an indispensable tool to understand how our minds work and how we can elevate our lives and bring purpose and meaning to our existence. If we can take one important lesson from his philosophy, it is that we should ask questions. As a wise code by Socrates goes, the unexamined life is not worth living. In our daily lives, we simply accept the way the society works. But we know that question, why things are the way they are, and what are the values on which it is built? Instead, we should cultivate a curious and inquisitive mindset and question everything. Unless we do that, we won't be able to change things and either make them better or come up with better solutions. Plato explained that the foundation of living an extraordinary life, to improve our reasoning consistently, and questioning and contemplating the beliefs that we have harbored and accepted. To paraphrase Dr. John D. Martini, the quality of their life is determined by the quality of the questions that you ask. In today's technological advanced times. If we have a question in our mind, the first place that we go to is Google. But then enhanced search engine, we can find answers to our daily problems instantly. But when it comes to the questions regarding moral and ethical dilemma, Google is not a useful to. During those hard times, we can turn to philosophy to seek guidance and direction. Instead of relying on search engines, AI, algorithms, and technology, we can focus our attention on learning from the rhythms of nature and life. Where we get on the trail of asking deeper questions about life, humanity, meaning, and purpose. We start creating a life that is not only happy and fulfilling, but extraordinary in every aspect. 21. Lesson 20 | Stoicism in the Modern Era: Times have changed and it may be a challenge for us to figure out how we can fit stoicism and the teachings of various philosophers in our modern lifestyle. As an age of the universe and the nature of humanity has not changed. Most of the fundamental taut remain the same. The magical doctrines mentioned in the ancient scriptures can still guide us when we are faced with obstacles and dilemmas. We definitely need not have a new approach and bring into the picture the advancement of technology, science, medicine, and the way we interact with other people. Philosophy can be a wonderful antidote and sued us whenever we encounter fading humanity. Not only it helps us in getting grounded again, but also reminds us of the truths that have stood the test of time. There are some brilliant takeaways from the ancient stoic philosophy that can add the depth that we need in our fast-paced lives. The teachings of ethics and relying on practical tools and strategies rather than moral theory are indispensable in today's society, the way we experience life has changed immensely. However, the basic approach that we should cultivate towards obstacles and daily challenges remain the same. And that's where stoicism can come to our rescue. The philosophy of intentionality and logic transfer very well in today's times where we are constantly bombarded with distractions and are fighting the urge to collect material possessions. It's hard to find the voice of our inner being in the noise that surrounds us. We're always busy or pretending to be busy. However, we lack productivity, focus and the burning desire within us to finish what we started. The movement of reductive materialism or minimalism can be a lifesaver and has batters with the Stoic philosophy de-cluttering our spaces and our minds can start churning the engines of a meaningful life and bringing more purpose and clarity to us. Last but not the least, the emotional roller coaster that we get on in our daily lives, further enhanced by media can wreck havoc in our lives. We don't pay close attention to it. The Stoics discouraged to get into unwarranted and irrelevant emotional trains of thoughts caused by misunderstandings and are inappropriate reactions. Instead, they're encouraged to cultivate, you put haha, or good emotional states. We have the power to generate happiness within us, remain untouchable by the chaos around us. Too stoic philosophy, we can embrace and enjoy the inner calm within us. The detachment towards circumstances and obstacles not only protects us, but also assists us in finding solutions and resolving issues. Becoming emotionally intelligent and strong not only helps us, but it is often immense value to the people that surround us and the ones we love. 22. Lesson 21 | Changing Our Beliefs: We human beings are rational creatures, are ethical judgments are initiated by impressions, which are basically the perceptions that we harbor towards objects around us. Unlike animals that respond automatically to these impressions, we tend to assess them. And that takes us to another following decisions. One, we think our impression is accurate based on the data that we had collected over time and say yes to it or two, we don't hold our impression to be correct. They may or may not need to collect more data to reach a conclusion. But for now, we say no to it. The previously mentioned yes is colon hasn't sank into pieces. Based on our ascends to impressions, we form beliefs and our minds. These beliefs dictate how we see the world and our opinions towards things, objects, and events. This may be true or false. As we grow up and live in our society, we are influenced continuously by its common beliefs. Unfortunately, some of these beliefs are not true and we end up cultivating a herd mentality. We end up living mediocre lives because our beliefs and expectations are defined by the people around us. Advertisements and constant bombardment by media makes us believe in false, true roots and we end up navigating our lives in the wrong direction. There's a chance that our perceptions of health, wealth, and living a successful life defined by the Society and others, maybe completely incorrect. Unfortunately, these false beliefs set up the operating system for us based on which we take intentional, misguided actions. These actions have the potential of sabotaging our well-being, finances, reputation, and our long-term success and fulfillment. A core concept in the stoic moral psychology is out of rational impulse or hormone. These impulses are basically psychological events that are defined by our set of beliefs and they eventually manifest into actions. Hence, our success and happiness are much it by our internal belief system. In order to live an extraordinary life and fight mediocrity, it is crucial that we first decimate all of our limiting beliefs as Veronica to the liver has beautifully said, carriage is a natural setting. You do not need to become courageous, but rather peel back the layers of self-protective, limiting beliefs that keep you small.