stoicism

THE ONLY ANSWER TO ALL YOUR QUESTIONS! (manifestation and neville) // PART 2 — SELF-CONCEPT (roll those drums caz i got my tea and i got to PREACH) i can claim to be the GOD of self concept i swear on me i got it baby and i got it sooooooo goooood (please take what you will caz…

The New Agora: Daily WWYD and light discussion thread — Welcome to the New Agora, a place for you and others to have casual conversations, seek advice and [first aid](https://modernstoicism.com/two-types-of-stoic-therapy-by-john-sellars/), and hang out tog…

How come everyone has a different view of what stoicism truly is? — Been lurking this sub for a while and I’ve noticed nearly every question has multiple people giving answers as to what stoicism “truly” is, or is in actuality/practice, but Ive also noticed a lot of t…

When is emotional control actually suppression? — In reading Epictetus and Seneca, I’ve been reflecting on how Stoicism distinguishes between emotional mastery and mere suppression. the texts emphasize that destructive emotions, anger, fear, resentm…

Getting rid of nihilism/pessimism — I (24M) am a pessimistic person, it is a really bad thing and i'm struggling to get rid of this thing. A lot of things happened these last years that chopped my illusions about life, such as losing my…

How did you get into Stoicism and how long did it take you to live like one? — To those of you that are able to comment, I’d like to know how long did it take you to feel like you’re living the life of a Stoic (as much as you can in these times)? And by that I mean, on the insi…

Drifting away from stoicsm — Stoicsms changed my life, but now a days I find myself not connecting as much with the lessons and forgetting them even though they helped me lots in the past. I'm and avid student; I do flashcards an…

Epictetus on character — I am fairly familiar with both Marcus Aurelius and Seneca by now. Just getting started with Epictetus and have been mulling this one over today: "Externals are the means by which our character finds …

Don’t you fear being too isolated? — I recently got rejected by a girl that I really liked. We started off as very good friends and unfortunately I caught feelings for her. So right now, I’m grieving the fact that I lost a really close f…

Coping with anxiety — Hi! I am a 26 yo doctor who is about to give a presentation on Sunday at a medical conference. Last few years (out of the blue, I didn’t struggle with this before the age of 21-22) I developed some s…

Farewell — In the last two years, I have posted to this group a few times. Last year, I posted ([“Here’s the thing: you’re dying, too.”](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stoicism/comments/1ifz1cr/heres_the_thing_youre_…

What if you’re the impression? — I posted here a while back asking whether the process of examining impressions ever gets in its own way. Whether progress looks like faster processing or less need to process at all. The responses hel…

People who started studying stoicism as teens or young adults, how has your perception changed overtime? — 18 year old this side, I just put down *A Guide to the Good Life* and I am now wondering how much of how I look at the philosophy and life as a whole will change overtime. I feel, one of the biggest…

Setting boundaries in Stoicism. — Let's say that you have a working colleague who is your superior and she makes a lot of remarks about your work, working qualities, ethics etc., most of which are not true and you know it. Not be inf…

I need advice — Stoic heroes, I could really use your advice. I’m naturally an overthinker and tend to worry a lot—which is what led me to Stoicism in the first place. I’ve been working at my current company for ab…

Stoicism and advice regarding isolation? — Because of life situations outside of my control, I have dealt with a lot of grief and pain regarding all relationships. I am essentially alone and after the grief and pain of betrayal and abandonment…

I meditated for 10 years. Here is how life changed — This is a personal anecdote of daily (99.5%) meditation practice spanning 10 years. I hope this will be helpful for those looking for motivation for their practice. Personally, I found external motiva…

What does Marcus Aurelius mean by “misfortune” and “good fortune” in Meditations 4.49? — I’m having trouble understanding what Marcus Aurelius means by “good fortune”/"good luck" and "bad luck"/“misfortune” in *Meditations* 4.49. From Robin Waterfield translation: >Be like a headland: th…

"Men Can't Be Men Anymore" — A week ago, I [posted about the Louis Theroux documentary on the “Manosphere,”](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stoicism/comments/1rtveyg/the_manosphere/) noting my surprise at the scale of the phenomenon, u…

Fake stoics? — At the end of a huge meltdown, this guy proceeds to angrily shout "read about stoicism!!!" at me, after starting a fight from thin air and clearly not practicing stoicism at all in that moment or in h…

How do I deal with a non-virtuous past that led to a good and comfortable present? — Hello everyone, In the past months I have been studying Stoicism (I have read the Discourses, Meditations, and now I’m on my way through the Seneca letters). I, however, wanted to have an opinion on s…

Is it inevitable that one arrives at stoicism with non-virtuous intent? — Not to get religious. But I remember reading a sermon years ago - CH Spurgeon I think - where he was describing true and false faith. He described that there would be a genuine love for Christ himself…

What’s your “pocket Stoic” book? — Do you have a particular piece on stoicism that you always carry with you? If so, what's your go-to?

How to handle this stoically? — Hi everyone. I've been reading books about Stoicism for a couple of years now, plus, more importantly, I've read Marcus, Epictetus, and a decent chunk of Seneca. I feel like I've taken in a fair bit a…

What would the stoic advice be to a homeless person? — Suppose they are making steps to get out of the situation, but in the meantime they must deal with the predicament. My understanding is that stoicism encourages self sufficiency. Is it wrong for some…

[Partner] Wife’s suppressed severe trauma surfaced. She’s in extreme ‘flight’ mode, refusing therapy, and I am burning out. Need honest outlooks. — \*\*Added some new context at the end Hi everyone. I’m hoping to find some perspective, hard truths, or shared experiences from those who have navigated severe PTSD/CPTSD dynamics. I am completely e…

How to handle envy? — I am new to stoicism and maybe do not understand it completely so apologies in advance! Recently I cant help but been feeling jealous of another person who is dating a woman i liked. Initially I rea…

Schopenhauer's cessation of striving and Marcus Aurelius's cognitive clearing: is there a Stoic equivalent of deliberate emptying before decision-making? — Schopenhauer argues that the continuous striving of the individual will produces only horizontal progress, and that the complete cessation of that striving opens a qualitatively different kind of perc…

Lifelong social comparison — Hi everyone, I’ve struggled with comparing myself to others my entire life. Whether it’s academics, fitness, or career, I constantly feel "behind" everyone else. Even my own achievements feel hollow b…

Journey from doomer to bloomer , this week's progress. — A week ago, I posted saying that I’m a doomer but (even if it’s late) I’d like to become a bloomer; here are the steps I took this week. 1 - I decided to stop watching porn. I don’t know if porn is …

Longevity trend and stoicism — So there is this trend around extremely rich people to control every aspect of their lives to live as long as possible or to ingest substances to even prolong their lives, which is interfering with th…

How did you first start working stoicism into your life? — Hi everyone. I am someone with a past that has resulted in me being far too hyper vigilant. I read into things and tend to feel the need to control situations. Before I started my degree, I had star…

What would a stoic say to combat “jealousy” (ex: someone I love involved with someone else) ? — How would Seneca, Marcus Aurelius or just anyone following stoicism would suggest if you don’t want to live with “jealousy”. A crush in a romantic relationship with someone else, basically Thanks

New to Stoicism — Hello guys, I'm knew to the whole stoicism philosophy and I really do not know where to start. So does anyone have any tips or videos or podcasts to watch to get a better understanding?

Concerning action taken after an external injustice — I want to preface this by saying I'm not a full convert to stoicism, but my personal philosophy/view on how to live one's life aligns strongly with it. I get/understand/try to live my life with the u…

Life has broken me: depression, bad health, shitty jobs, and an emptiness that even therapy can’t fix — Hey, I was in treatment for severe depression and it turned out a lot of it was actually untreated attention/concentration disorder. With the meds I’m more stable now — my brain only works when you f…

Welcome! Read Me First. — # Welcome to r/Stoicism. This community exists for serious discussion of Stoic philosophy. It is not a forum for general self-help, motivation, validation, or professional therapy. It is also not a p…

Feeling lost and stressed after starting a “safe” job while chasing dreams — Hey everyone, I’m kind of stuck in my own head right now and could really use some advice. I just started a new job this week as a youth worker after finishing my degree in applied psychology. The t…

Overcorrections 2 Electric Boogaloo — This time I'm focusing on the way things are phrased in this subreddit's Read Me First. The problems I'm noticing can be either attributed to right understanding but wrong phrasing, or wrong understan…

Marcus Aurelius wrote "look inward" constantly. What's the thing about yourself you suspect you still can't see? — Something I keep coming back to in the Meditations is how often Marcus talks about self-examination. Not once as an exercise, but as a daily discipline. "Look within. Within is the fountain of good, a…

What term is used to describe the Animal Instincts of Man in ancient greece language? Im confused — Different sources give me different answers and they contradict each other, so I thoght I could find a precise answer in this sub. For example, there is terms like: "physis", "psyche", "alogon", "horm…

Can Stoicism ever be a political ideology? — I mean Marcus Aurelius ruled the Roman Empire under Stoicism and did a pretty good job.

How to forgive myself and stop ruminating over lost sentimental items? — I've struggled for years with ADHD and OCD. I like material items because they each hold a memory that I might otherwise forget, not because the memory doesn't matter, but because my brain is chaos an…

Very conflicted. — I’ll be brief here. I am highly conflicted on stoicism as a whole. Epictetus never did much for me. But when I read Seneca’s “On Anger”, for the first time in a long while I did not feel as though I…

THE ONLY ANSWER TO ALL YOUR QUESTIONS! (manifestation and neville) // PART 2 — SELF-CONCEPT (roll those drums caz i got my tea and i got to PREACH) i can claim to be the GOD of self concept i swear on me i got it baby and i got it sooooooo goooood (please take what you will …

Stoic free will versus determinism — I recently posted this comment on a question regarding free will in Stoicism. I’d like any refinements or corrections to improve my understanding of free will and determinism in Stoic thought. The St…

Stoicism and the art of happiness—edition with decent paper quality? — I bought Stoicism and the Art of Happiness by Donald Robertson on Amazon . But the paper is very low quality—it would not be possible to highlight without bleeding through. I’m wondering if I buy a…

Life has broken me: depression, bad health, shitty jobs, and an emptiness that even therapy can’t fix — Hey, I was in treatment for severe depression and it turned out a lot of it was actually untreated attention/concentration disorder. With the meds I’m more stable now — my brain only works when you f…

I've started practicing stoicism and its improving my life — Over the past 4 months in the morning I read a bit of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius and I always try to do a 15 meditation session before or after the gym. My mind feels overall more clear, I see mea…

So I know what I should do logically its just move on and do this and that to the best of my ability yet my emotional side of my brain keeps whining about stuff and keeps me stuck — How to be more logical and move forward with life according to stoicism

>*In order to move on, you need to not only stop feeling sorry for yourself,* *but also stop feeling sorry for the world.* *That is forgiveness in its essence.* *To give up a certain lens to see…

Greetings, I've published a new article one he role that play, games, and hobbies have in Stoicism: https://mimeticvirtue.substack.com/p/fun-and-games

> The sub doesn't let me post That's weird. There are auto-rules that limit TOP-LEVEL comments for posts tagged as "Seeking Personal Stoic Guidance". You have to be tagged as a "Contributor". I do…

A tool for "Digital Hypomnemata" I’ve been practicing Stoicism for a few years, but my biggest struggle has always been the gap between reading The Enchiridion in the morning and actually applying it…

Greetings, I've published a new article on aesthetics and it's relevance for virtue, and therefore Stoicism: https://mimeticvirtue.substack.com/p/the-aesthetic-compulsion

I don't have the answer, but I have read (and know from my own experience) that anxious preoccupied are attracted to the steady stoicism of the avoidant, and they in turn are attracted to the big hear…

Hey everyone👋 Over the last few years I've struggled with identity, motivation, feelings of failure. I've come back to Stoicism as a way to ground me, help me be more rooted in whats important to me…

Folks, tomorrow (Saturday 10 AM EST) I'll be doing a live zoom talk in the Conversations with Modern Stoicism series, and would love to see some of this community there. Here's the [link](https://luma…

Been studying Stoicism for a while and wanted a way to "consult" Marcus Aurelius when working through difficult situations. So I trained a chatbot exclusively on Meditations (Hays translation) plus so…

Posted a short summary of my book *A Stoic Resurection* ([I introduced it in another comment down below](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stoicism/comments/1obp2fx/comment/noljs2g/?utm_source=share&utm_medium…

Sunday Stoic - Greetings, I am cohost of the “Sunday Stoic” podcast, a weekly podcast that concentrates on applying Stoicism to modern life.  Our most recent episode examines the Cardinal Virtue of Ju…

Greetings, I've published a new article on "fun", situating fun within Stoicism and discussing how Stoics should orient themselves regarding fun: https://mimeticvirtue.substack.com/p/on-fun

Precisely! It was a part of a book on Stoicism that I’m listening to on Audible. It’s been helpful to internalize that and practice everyday when im finding myself browsing the socials.

Hi, welcome to the subreddit. Please make sure that you check out [the FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stoicism/wiki/guide), where you will find answers for many common questions, like ["What is Stoicis…

Stoicism is a practice not a set of rules/behaviors. Action in themselves diverge, it's the overall behavior that accompany the actions that matter. Besides, literally every philosophy/religion is li…

There’s just a lot of misinformation, either from ignorance or a disregard to truth. Stoicism is a virtue ethics philosophy that holds that virtue is the supreme good, so we should align our will (or …

If you understood Tradition Stoicism, you wouldn’t have to ask. Dig deeper and keep reading from the original texts.

There are several reasons: 1. The original sources are extremely incomplete. We have *none* of the major foundational works in full, and instead rely entirely on second hand (often highly abbreviated…

To expand on this, consider how many kinds of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism there are. There's no determinant of orthodoxy in Stoicism. I will gently disagree about Stoicism being only a…

Hi, welcome to the subreddit. Please make sure that you check out [the FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stoicism/wiki/guide), where you will find answers for many common questions, like ["What is Stoicis…

A few of thoughts First, the original Stoics were writing and debating their theories over 2,000 years ago. Due to the vagueries of translation and the vastness of time between them and us, there are…

Yes. As you say there are different aspects to Stoicism, which will lead to different types. There is a rugged Stoics who experience the ills of the world and march on relentlessly with acceptance. …

Seneca's Epistle 1: A "Historical Restoration" for Modern Practitioners (Lodge/Gummere Synthesis) **The Content:** I hear you on the translations, u/Fragrant-Point-4328. I've been working on a rest…

This sub is Stoicism, a philosophy of life which tells us to mind what is ours and not to mind what is not ours. We are not in control of what others do, and worrying about what others might do is a …

We’ve lost the original texts of the founders of the school, so unlike Plato who survives complete or Aristotle who we have a decent chunk of, we have to rely on later Stoics, who are adapting the ear…

Op, you are awesome for this but i have a question: 1. Certain personality disorders by their actions inflict hurt or harm to others: Anti Social and to an extent NPD. When the result of the action i…

Besides the part where people would want to have more of the ancient texts, I think the reason is that the way Stoicism was interpreted by scholars took a turn where the classical interpretation that …

The divergence in perspectives on Stoicism is a result of a massive data gap between the original ancient hardware and the modern cultural software. The term has been hijacked by a contemporary "movie…

Some great answers here already, but I'll just add that Stoicism does encourage more intellectual/epistemic autonomy and is less prescriptive than other schools. So, to a certain extent, everyone ha…

Hi, welcome to the subreddit. Please make sure that you check out [the FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stoicism/wiki/guide), where you will find answers for many common questions, like ["What is Stoicis…

Creo que estás tocando algo muy estoico sin darte cuenta: la amabilidad no significa dejar que otros te usen, significa actuar según tu virtud, no según la reacción de los demás. Marco Aurelio hablab…

No, I haven't. Is it a part of Stoicism or a different philosophy?

Stoicism consists of altruistic principles, but not entirely. Pure altruism is to sacrifice yourself completely, and act ONLY for others' benefit. Altruism is a part of Justice, one of the four core v…

Nice, this is essentially Stoicism.

I am no psychotherapist, but where I draw the line is at the distinction between acting on the emotion and denying that I am experiencing it in the first place. Suppression in this view is essentially…

The distinction between doormat and kindness can only be found within you. You know your true motivation for it and that, in Stoicism, is what matters and reflects your internal judgements. That you…

I have a few different things to say in response: First, I should answer your direct question: # What is Kindness I'd say that's just a semantic thing. The real question is what you think is the ri…

I am offering my thoughts in hopes that something somewhere might help you see things in a new light. This will be long and I will take no offense if you don't read it. >Unfortunately, I think for th…

Dear members, Please note that only flaired users can make top-level comments on this 'Seeking Personal Stoic Guidance' thread. Non-flaired users can still participate in discussions by replying to …

Stoicism doesn’t try to suppress emotions. What it tries to correct is the judgment that fuels them. A person may behave calmly outwardly while still agreeing internally with the thoughts that produce…

Dear members, Please note that only flaired users can make top-level comments on this 'Seeking Personal Stoic Guidance' thread. Non-flaired users can still participate in discussions by replying to …

This is also something ive been going through, 6 years with somebody I grew up with for almost 20 years. Close family and friends, unfortunately the respect ive given to her was not enough for a recip…

Thank you for giving such a break down of my thoughts. I think that this is a good Segway into learning a stoic mindset. Being a young man is difficult in finding the way. When I say " in today's worl…

Dear members, Please note that only flaired users can make top-level comments on this 'Seeking Personal Stoic Guidance' thread. Non-flaired users can still participate in discussions by replying to …

I find whenever people make a sure distinction between reason and emotion, the chances of suppression are high. In Stoicism, reasons are emotions and emotions are reasons, even having an extreme anger…

If you are needing to "control" a judgement then the judgement itself is probably not in accordance with virtue, and should be corrected. Emotional discipline, unlike some modern views of stoicism, …

I happened upon Massimo Pigliucci's *How To Be a Stoic* and was immediately enthralled! Next I read through Epictetus' *Discourses* and *Handbook*, and that really solidified by belief in Stoicism. …

Watched a video by a channel called Aperture, before that I heard people like Andrew Tate and Co. sling the word "Stoicism" around. How long did it take for me to live like a Stoic? It took me the bet…

You have to read the source material, understand the arguments and critique the truth claims made by the philosophers. You have to DO philosophy. Not just swallow the doctrine. Ancient philosophy like…

The FAQ is a great introduction. You can poke around by content that interests you. A couple authors I would look into first are John Sellars and Donald Robertson. [Modern Stoicism](https://modernstoi…