Pod Insights The Daily Stoic | Wondery+ How To Find Peace | 8 Stoic Lessons You Can Start Today About this episode Nearly 2,000 years ago, the Stoics were trying to do what we’re all trying to do now: find some peace. For them, philosophy wasn’t an academic hobby. It was something they leaned on to remember what they could control and to let the rest go. That’s why their words still hold up today and continue to help people stay calmer, clearer, and more level-headed. In today's episode, you'll hear eight Stoic lessons you can use to feel a little more steady and at peace.
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:04 Ryan Holiday? Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Stoic Podcast. On Sundays, we take a deeper dive into these ancient topics with excerpts from the Stoic texts, audiobooks that we like here or recommend here at Daily Stoic, and other long-form wisdom that you can chew on on this relaxing weekend. We hope this helps shape your understanding of this philosophy, and most importantly, that you're able to apply it to your actual life. Thank you for listening.
0:43 Ryan Holiday? Okay, I want to take you way back to March 2020. There's some news coming out about things happening on the other side of the world. People are starting to get nervous about this pandemic thing that's happening. Well, I was also nervous and stressed out because I was in the middle of starting construction on what would become the Painted Porch Bookstore. So there were these ominous clouds on the horizon. And then there was also just the reality of the stress and chaos surrounding me. Like, literally, our office was getting torn up. Like, there were supplies everywhere, there were invoices. This whole project that we were dumping a good chunk of our life savings into was also there on the horizon. So I worked on this piece about finding peace inside that.
1:27 Ryan Holiday? It was called "How to Find Peace: Eight Stoic Lessons You Can Start Today." And it's just wild to me to think that I wrote this in the days before the world basically shut down for COVID. But so much of what's in Stoicism, it's both timely and timeless. And I thought I would bring it to you today. Well, actually, not me. Katie McGirl, who is the Associate Editor of Daily Stoic, she's the one that helps bring these emails and these podcasts to you every single day. She did the narration, so I think they're gonna like this. It's a treat. You can get a break from my obnoxious voice and listen to Katie. So take some time on this Sunday to apply these lessons and get in the right mindset before the work week begins tomorrow. Enjoy.
2:14 Speaker 01 How to Find Peace: Eight Stoic Lessons You Can Start Today Peace of mind is something many look for, but few achieve. How wonderful it would be if we could be one of those fortunate souls that seem to be disturbed by nothing and nobody. People like Fred Rogers, the children's television show host, who always seemed to have a serene expression on his face and a reputation for treating everyone he met with the utmost kindness and patience. The misconception with these types of people is that all of them are like that naturally, with little to no effort made on their behalf. While it is true that this equanimity comes more easily for some people than others, almost all of them are like this because they develop methods of emotional control
2:57 Speaker 01 and rationalization, which they practice daily. Rogers himself woke up at 5:00 a.m. every day to spend an hour alone in reflection and prayer. This was what brought him peace in all other areas of his life and helped him to maintain a steady frame of mind. But this isn't the only way that you could start to build up a foundation of stillness into your life. And Rogers certainly wasn't the first person to see the value in drawing from certain lessons and rituals daily as a means of cultivating the inner peace that would serve him in all other areas of his life. Nearly 2,000 years ago, Stoic philosophers were also trying to find peace. Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor, made it a point to spend time alone with his journal every morning before dawn.
3:41 Speaker 01 Epictetus, the former slave-turned-philosopher, admonished his students to constantly keep in mind that "men are disturbed not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things." For these men, practicing philosophy was a necessity, something they could constantly come back to, to remind themselves what was in their control and help them view outside events with more detachment. And this is why the writings of the Stoics have endured for so long and continue to teach people from all walks of life how to be less reactive, more reflective, and more level-headed. With that in mind, here are eight Stoic lessons you can learn and apply to feel more tranquil,
4:23 Speaker 01 free, and at peace, no matter who you are or where you're from. Don't Suffer Imagined Troubles There are more things likely to frighten us than there are to crush us. We suffer more often in imagination than in reality. Seneca
4:42 Speaker 01 How often do we tie ourselves up in knots over imagined troubles? How often do we let anxiety and worry get the better of us? How much of our pain is real? And how much of it is fear about pain that might or might not actually happen? Seneca's remedy is found in his letter on groundless fears. "What I advise you to do is not to be unhappy before the crisis comes. Since it may be that the dangers before you which you paled as if they were threatening you will never come upon you, they certainly have not yet come. Some torment us before they ought, and some torment us when they ought not to torment us at all. We are in the habit of exaggerating, or imagining, or anticipating sorrow.
5:27 Speaker 01 Don't let worry get the best of you. Stay in the present, stay with your actual troubles. There's plenty there. Accept your own mortality. No man can have a peaceful life who thinks too much about lengthening it. Seneca." Death is something that hangs over all of our heads. It follows us everywhere, and yet we try to avoid even thinking about it. Turn on the news any night of the week and you're sure to see a story reported of somebody who tragically dies before their time. The thought gives us so much anxiety that we do anything possible to shut it out. We'll spend hours playing video games trying to keep ourselves unaware that our time is running out, minute by minute and second by second. The only antidote to this malady then is to accept our mortality.
6:12 Speaker 01 By accepting our own mortality, we can make peace with the only thing in life that we can take for granted. We're going to die, and so is everybody we love. Humans have been dying for tens of thousands of years, and they will continue to die long after we're gone. But this thought shouldn't depress us, quite the opposite. It should inspire us. It should motivate us to live each day to its absolute fullest and to stop taking our current abilities to make our lives great for granted, and to not obsess over lengthening our lives, but rather use the time we do have to appreciate the gift of being alive. Remember whose opinion matters. "It never ceases to amaze me. We all love ourselves more than other people,
6:56 Speaker 01 but care more about their opinions than our own." Marcus Aurelius "In a hyper-connected world, it's never been more important to stop caring about the opinions of others than it is today. And there's a simple reason for this. There are almost 8 billion people in the world. All of them come from different backgrounds, all of them have different experiences, and all of them have different interests and priorities. If you were to try to take all 8 billion of these opinions into account when choosing how you're going to live your life, you'd go insane. And this is nothing new. 2,000 years ago, Seneca was admonishing his friend Lucilius to disregard the world's opinion of him because it's always unsettled and divided.
7:39 Speaker 01 Seneca knew that the only things we should be focusing on are those that concern us and those that are right. And this is something we should all keep in mind as well. Instead of worrying what everyone thinks of us, we should only focus on doing what we know to be true. We should focus on being consistently kind, caring, patient, tolerant, disciplined, wise, and understanding. Because if we constantly keep these things before our eyes, then we will always know that no matter what happens or what other people say, we were doing the right thing." Schedule stillness into your life. "Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well-ordered mind
8:23 Speaker 01 than a man's ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company." Seneca "In the 21st century, the pace of life seems to be accelerating more and more with each passing day. Most of us are on the move and in a rush from the minute we wake up, rushing to do the things we need to get done and then filling in every spare moment with social media and cheap entertainment. We can't stand to be bored, and because of this, we reflexively run from anything that entails reflection or solitude." Viktor Frankl once said, "Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."
9:08 Speaker 01 But we can't have this growth and freedom if we're so anxious over having a moment alone with ourselves that we have to resort to mindlessly checking our Instagram feed every time we get the chance. So, instead of using every spare moment to try to suppress your thoughts, become friends with them. If you have a spare five minutes, go for a walk and practice experiencing the peace that can only come from being completely comfortable with yourself and accepting your lot, no matter what it is. Find the beauty in everyday life. Observe the movements of the stars as if you were running their courses with them, and let your mind constantly dwell on the changes of the elements into each other. Such imaginings wash away the filth of life on the ground.
9:53 Speaker 01 Marcus Aurelius, Meditations. No matter how much Stoicism can teach us about how to act in the world and how to treat our fellow human beings, it will never be able to explain why we exist or why the universe exists. For Marcus Aurelius, this wasn't a source of stress or anxiety; in fact, it was the exact opposite. Although thinking about the nature of our existence isn't what Stoicism concerns itself with, taking the time to appreciate what does exist is. It's why there are passages all throughout the Meditations where Marcus appreciates the little things that most of us overlook so often, like, "When a loaf of bread, for instance,
10:35 Speaker 01 is in the oven, cracks appear in it here and there, and these flaws, though not intended in the baking, have a rightness of their own and sharpen the appetite. Figs, again at their ripest, will also crack open."
10:50 Speaker 01 When olives are on the verge of falling, the very imminence of decay adds its peculiar beauty to the fruit. The beauty of these observations is in their simplicity. Despite being emperor, in no part of the Meditations do we find Marcus obsessing over luxury or over things that aren't just as easily available to all of us. What we do find him consistently appreciating, though, is the vastness of the universe and all the things it contains. It's why that particular passage ends with Marcus noting that those simple things are beautiful precisely because they, in their own unique way, contribute to the macrocosm that encompasses all of us. So anytime you feel anxious or stressed,
11:34 Speaker 01 try to take a moment, even if it's just two minutes. But take a moment to look at the sky and think of how many people look at the same sky as you. How many people draw peace from the same simple things? Whether it be a walk in the park or the smell of their mother's cooking. And let that thought comfort you.
12:05 Speaker 01 Take the view from above. Think of substance in its entirety, of which you have the smallest of shares, and of time in its entirety, of which a brief and momentary span has been assigned to you, and of the works of destiny and how very small is your part in them. Marcus Aurelius. When embroiled in our affairs and the events of our lives, it feels like the most important thing in the world. They feel like this because we rarely decide to step out of our habitual manner of looking at the world, which, because of all the things we're constantly dealing with, often revolves exclusively around our immediate surroundings. Because of this, we forget just how much more
12:48 Speaker 01 there is going on in the world, not to mention the universe. And we also make the mistake of thinking that all of the things we habitually concern ourselves with actually have anything to do with us. In the second lesson of his phenomenal video course, Living from a Place of Surrender, the author Michael Singer urges us to consider the fact that the moment in front of us is 13.8 billion years in the making. Furthermore, he urges us to consider just how big the universe is, how many atoms, molecules, distant galaxies, and other humans exist, and just how much is going on right now that has absolutely nothing to do with us. Doing this can have a powerful effect on the average human being because it puts all of our problems into
13:32 Speaker 01 perspective. It also makes us realize that our problems are only so big because we make them so. And it is something we can regularly think about in practice in order to benefit from the peace that results from becoming conscious of the fact that we're all part of something so much bigger than ourselves as to be unfathomable. Live by a Code. If it is not right, do not do it. If it is not true, do not say it. Marcus Aurelius. The best part of Stoicism is that it gives us a framework by which we can live our lives. If we decide to accept this framework, then we no longer have to spend time on the daily decisions that normally tire us out throughout the day.
14:16 Speaker 01 The reason for this is that now, instead of considering whether we should give in to the temptation of caring what other people think or sleeping in when we have to work, things we know are bad for us aren't even a question. If they don't align with our moral code of conduct, then we don't even consider them. For some, this might seem like too restrictive a way of living, but for the Stoics, it was the opposite. Having this code released them from the anxiety and uncertainty that results from having to obsess over every little decision they made. And by doing this, you can experience the peace that results from discarding everything outside the few things that you choose to focus on, things that are hopefully right, good, and true. Reflect Often.
15:01 Speaker 01 The unexamined life is not worth living. Socrates. Out of all the lessons we've laid here on finding peace, this is perhaps the most important. If we don't schedule reflection into our days, then we risk falling prey to our basest impulses and bad habits. The way the Stoics did this was through journaling. Marcus Aurelius did it in the morning as a way to prepare himself for the difficulties of the day, and Seneca wrote in the evening, noting that "the sleep which follows this self-examination is particularly sweet." According to Donald Robertson, psychotherapist and author of How to Think Like a Roman Emperor, one of the main benefits of journaling is that it facilitates being able to look at
15:45 Speaker 01 your thoughts objectively, if done correctly. Indeed, scattered throughout the writings of the Stoics are their attempts to bring situations down to size, to "de-catastrophize" them, as Robertson likes to call it. Because by journaling and making it a point to not let anything that goes by us unobserved, then we can exercise the most important power a human being possesses: our reason. And by constantly exercising this reason, both in our reflections and throughout the day, we'll gain a greater level of awareness over what is and isn't in our control, and therefore, more peace. There are so many ways the Stoics can teach us how to find inner peace, and we can only
16:28 Speaker 01 discover them all by continuing our study of this philosophy. But for now, take these lessons to heart to get started on—or continue on—your journey for that inner peace we so desperately crave. It's worth it.
16:47 Ryan Holiday? Thanks so much for listening. If you could rate this podcast and leave a review on iTunes, that would mean so much to us, and it would really help the show. We appreciate it, and I'll see you next episode.
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