The Daily Stoic - Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living Day 36 November 17th - Judge Not, Lest... "When philosophy is wielded with arrogance and stubbornly, it is the cause for the ruin of many. Let philosophy scrape off your own faults, rather than be a way to rail against the faults of others." -Seneca, Moral Letters, 103.4b-5a From the Author: "Remember, the proper direction of philosophy - of all things we're doing here - is focused inward. To make ourselves better and to leave other people to that task for themselves and their own journey. Our faults are in our control, and so we turn to philosophy to help scrape them off like barnacles from the hull of a ship. Other people's faults? Not so much. That's for them to do. Leave other people to their faults. Nothing in Stoic philosophy empowers you to judge them - only to accept them. Especially when we have so many of our own." First is to acknowledge we have faults, then is to explore the breadth and depth of them, then to recognise how they affect your and those around you. If we can do these things through questioning ourselves, even to dark places, and giving completely honest answers to ourselves, and breaking down that pride that we have of self-perfection, then we can heal, or scrape the barnacles off. One of the biggest faults that many may have is hypocrisy; holding others to standards that we don't hold ourselves to. Whether it's consciously or subconsciously, we will always forgive ourselves before others, if it allows us to absolve ourselves of blame. Which is another fault, along with judgement, that many have, or find themselves falling for. Take responsibility for your journey, but not another's. Have humility and patience while others start what you are already underway on.

The Daily Stoic - Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living Day 31 November 12th - The Strong Accept Responsibility "If we judge as good and evil only the things in the power of our own choice, then there is no room left for blaming gods or being hosile to others." -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.41 From the Author: "As the president of our own lives - and knowing that our powers begin and end with our reasoned choice - we would do well to internalize this same attitude (Of President Truman - "The Buck Ends Here" - you have no one to blame but yourself, no one to pass the buck to). We don't control things outside that sphere, but we do control our attitudes and our responses to those events - and that's plenty. It's enough that we go into each and every day knowing that there is no one to pass the buck to. It ends with us." I wrote a post on Twitter a year or two ago (I'm not much of a poster, so it was a spur of the moment thought that I needed to get out) in regards to taking responsibility, and that I'm seeing more and more that people of all ages no longer take responsibility for many things in their lives, and rather outsource these things to others. Whether it's authorities, people they see as better equipped than them, for lack of interest or time to find the answers and confidence to take into their own hands their lives. The post was very much centered on health at that stage, and that people will not take responsibility for what they eat, drink, or what they put on their bodies, and blame illness on factors out of their control (there are very few of these I honestly believe), or other people 'making them sick'. They then go to the doctor, who's education consisted of very short period on diet, and possibly nothing on light environment or other energetic aspects. These doctors do not treat root cause most often, and prescribe pills in many cases. This is outsourcing health because one cannot take responsibility. Another is finances. We're seeing through Bitcoin how we can take responsibility in a greater way of our finances, but I fear that self custody is going to be an uphill battle, since people seemingly don't understand the importance of taking responsibility. I think a fear of many is that if they fuck something up for themselves, they can't claim miscommunication, mistreatment, or misallocation and absolve themselves of the mistake. It takes real courage to admit mistakes, to learn and grow from them. It takes humility, too, to face up and tell someone you were wrong. But when it comes to your own self, humility is admitting you don't know, and finding answers for yourself, testing and verifying things (such as a carnivore diet for health), and courage is taking the steps to take control of your life and removing those safety nets that don't help, but rather hinder and reduce the freedom and quality of life you may have.

The Daily Stoic - Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living Day 30 November 11th - It's Not The Thing, It's What We Make Of It "When you are distressed by an external thing, it's not the thing itself that troubles you, but only your judgement of it. And you can wipe this out at a moments notice." -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.47 Excerpts from Author: "Franklin Delano Roosevelt, now widely regarded as one of America's greatest political leaders was, in middle age, diagnosed with polio after spending years preparing for and dreaming about the presidency. It's impossible to understand FDR without understanding this disability. The "external thing" was that he was crippled - this was a literal fact - but his judgement of it was that it did not cripple his career or his personhood. Though he was certainly the victim of a then incurable disease, he wiped away - almost immediately - the victim's mentality. Let's not confuse acceptance with passivity." I've talked about external factors, and most people describe them as 'happening to them'. In this case I would admit polio happened upon FDR, but most things that can be described as negative, which may be allowed to affect ones outlook on life, or to sully their day, doesn't 'happen to them'. It happens, and we take it on board, and allow it to affect us, rather than let it be an outside factor that does not have to sour us. Things happen, and our opinion of it is all that we can control, it's all that we have. Why would you bemoan, constantly, things that feel like setbacks, incidents that cost or waste time, when we could rather use our energy to strive onwards, look at the bigger picture, see it for a tiny blip that likely won't matter in a day, month, 5 years. Tying this into another aspect of the universe - 'where thoughts go, energy flows.' What you focus on, you attract, and over-thinking, worrying, or complaining about certain things that are happening doesn't make your situation any better - you may just appear as a victim - and in many cases, worrying is just putting yourself though an impending horrible situation twice. Why would you do that to yourself? I had a housemate who would get very serious when I described myself or someone else as "Happy-go-lucky", because it's such a rare attribute to a person, and that it's not a term to 'throw around' as it were. But I really think that people who can differentiate themselves from the things happening, and focusing on the silver lining, or considering everything to be a real gift for growth, to be exactly this kind of person. I even consider myself to be somewhat happy-go-lucky. Many things tend to work out for me, theres no resistance, opportunities pop up and sometimes I'm wise enough to recognise them.

The Daily Stoic - Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living Day 25 November 6th - Someone Else Is Spinning The Thread "If the breaking day sees someone proud, The ending day sees them brought low. No one should put too much trust in triumph, No one should give up hope of trials improving. Clotho mixes one with the other and stops Fortune from resting, spinning every fate around. No one has had so much divine favor They they could guarantee themselves tomorrow. God keeps our lives hurtling on, Spinning in a whirlwind." - Seneca, Thyestes, 613 From the Author, paraphrased: "To the ancients, Clotho, one of the three Greek goddesses of fate 'spun' the thread of human life. She decided the course of the events of our lives - some good. Some bad. A triumph becomes a trial, a trial becomes a triumph. Life can change in an instant. Remember, today, how often it does." "When the gods send evil, one cannot escape it." - Aeschylus, playwright. I'm constantly reminded that 'this too shall pass'. It seems that everytime I go through a rough time, the goddesses relieve me, let me breathe fresh air once again. I don't tend to go through many trials, or maybe I do and just don't notice how bad it could be for others if they were in my situation. I see others go through great trials, though, and then see their triumphs on the way, and it reinforces the ups and downs of life, and to not spend time wallowing on the trials, nor celebrating the triumphs, but to look forward to each trial as an opportunity to triumph over, then onto the next. Fate is spun outside of our control, and we never know what tomorrow will bring. The only thing we can control is how we react to each hurdle and haven. Remember; This too shall pass, and the clouds will part, and the sun will shine on your face. But don't spend too much time basking, because there is much work to do.