When the World Caves In… | Practice Love

Ryan discusses the reliability of Stoicism during tough times, and reads this week’s meditation from The Daily Stoic Journal, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast. Blinkist is the app that gets you fifteen-minute summaries of the best nonfiction books out there. Blinkist lets you get the topline information and the most important points from the most important nonfiction books out there, whether it’s Ryan’s own The Daily Stoic, Yuval Harari’s Sapiens, and more. Go to blinkist.com/stoic, try it free for 7 days, and save 25% off your new subscription, too. Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://DailyStoic.com/emailFollow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:04Ryan Holiday?

  Bienvenidos al podcast diario de Stoic. Cada día te traemos una meditación inspirada por los antiguos estoicos, ilustrada con historias de la historia, eventos actuales y literatura para ayudarte a ser mejor en lo que haces. Y al principio de la semana intentamos hacer un profundísimo descubrimiento, estableciendo una especie de intención estoica para la semana, algo para meditar, algo para pensar, algo para dejarte con, para journalizar, lo que sea que te suceda que estés haciendo. Así que vamos a entrar.

• 0:34Ryan Holiday?

  Cuando el mundo cava hacia adentro. Imagina el desespero de Cato cuando César demostró ser inestable. Imagina a Seneca y Thracia y Epictetus cuando Nero se volvieron a controlar. Imagina a Marcus cuando las amenazas triples de guerra, plaguas y inundaciones se congregaron. Debería sentirse como lo ha sido para muchos de nosotros en los últimos 18 meses que el mundo estaba cayendo hacia adentro, que estaba sin esperanza, que era injusto, que iba a ser solo peor. Pero debemos recordar que cuando todo se cae, hay algo de lo que siempre podemos depender, y eso es la filosofía. William Alexander Percy, quien sobrevivió a la batalla en la Primera Guerra Mundial

• 1:16Ryan Holiday?

  y la muerte de su padre y hermano a suicidio en la gran inundación de 1927, diría del estoicismo que cuando todo se pierde, se queda firme. Eso es lo que Cato y Seneca y Thracia y Epictetus y Marcus Aurelius encontraron en las páginas de los libros que amaron, en sus propios diarios y en la sabiduría que se les enseñó. Tenían un sistema de apoyo dependable. Encontraron algo que les dio esperanza, les dio propósito, les dio claridad. Aunque las cosas sean malas hoy, debería consolarte y inspirarte en que el estoicismo sigue aquí. Ha sobrevivido todas esas tragedias y innumerables otras por más de 2000 años. Y así es como es la humanidad, vale a señalar. El mundo solo se siente como si estuviera cayendo hacia adentro.

• 2:01Ryan Holiday?

  El estoicismo se queda firme. Coraje, temperance, justicia, sabiduría, estas son constantes. Relya en ellos. Hazte cargo de ellos. Hazte firme con ellos.

• 2:14Ryan Holiday?

  Practice love. The Stoic notion of Sympathia, that we are all part of an organic whole, connected by mutual interests and affinities, is greater than the golden rule. Don't treat others how you would like to be treated. Treat them like you would treat yourself, because we are all one. Seneca said that whenever he encountered another human being, he saw an opportunity for kindness. And he learned from Hecate of Rhodes that if you want to be loved, there's only one thing you can do: love others. Who can you give love to this week? What kindness can you expend? How can you show how you feel to strangers, to friends and family? And how can you show them that you actually believe we are all part of the same whole? And this is from this week's entry in the Daily Stoic Journal,

• 2:59Ryan Holiday?

  "366 Days of Writing and Reflection on the Art of Living", by yours truly and my co-writer and translator, Stephen Hanselman. I actually do this journal every single day. There's a question in the morning, a question in the afternoon, and then there's these sort of weekly meditations. As Epictetus says, "Every day and night, we keep thoughts like this at hand. Write them, read them aloud, and talk to yourself and others about them." You can check out the Daily Stoic Journal anywhere books are sold. You can also get a signed, personalized copy from me in the Daily Stoic store at store.dailystoic.com. In the "All is One" chapter of Stillness is the Key, there's a quote I like from Seneca. It says, "All that you behold, that which comprises both God and man, is one."

• 3:42Ryan Holiday?

  We are all part of one great body. And there's this quote I love from Edgar Mitchell, the astronaut who was up in space looking down at the Earth. And he says that he felt an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, and intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. So this idea that we are all one, this Sympathia idea, to me... Is the essence of Stoicism. Stoicism isn't to make you an island, to disconnect you from other people. Quite the contrary, Seneca says it's to make you kinder and more connected to other people. And Seneca, the three quotes we have today, one is Seneca quoting Hiccupo. He says, "I can teach you a love potion made without any drugs, herbs, or special

• 4:25Ryan Holiday?

  spell, if you would be loved, love." And then in The Happy Life, Seneca says, "A benefit should be kept like a buried treasure, only to be dug up in necessity. Nature bids us to do well by all. Wherever there is a human being, we have an opportunity for kindness." And then in Moral Letters 95, he says, "Nature produced us as a family, since we all sprang from the same source and towards the same end. Nature bestowed upon us mutual love and joined us together as friends." I think going out into nature, looking at something majestic, or as Edgar Mitchell did, looking at the earth from a distance, it does give you this sense of our interconnectedness. It makes a lot of the things that we get angry about feel very petty and small and

• 5:09Ryan Holiday?

  insignificant. Being around your kids does this as well. You see just how sweet and innocent and pure they are, and it feels weird to carry anger or resentment about anything or anyone. But one of the things I wanted to do in today's episode, I wanted to riff, give you a little TikTok that we did that was popular. You might think that the Stoics are kind of these unfeeling people, and I get that, but it's actually not true at all. Seneca says, "If you want love in your life," he says, "then love." Marcus Aurelius says that he learns from one of his mentors, "to be free of passions, yes, but full of love." Do you have affection for other people? If you want to feel good, if you want to be loved by other people, it's about what you

• 5:51Ryan Holiday?

  put out in the world. As the Beatles say, "It's about the energy you put out in the world, because ultimately, that's what you control." If you want to feel better, don't go expecting other people to validate you, other people to give you what you want. Give what you want. Marcus Aurelius says, "If you want to feel good, do good. If you want to feel loved, put love out in the world. Put affection out in the world. See everyone you meet," as Seneca says, "as an opportunity to practice kindness, and the rest will take care of itself. I promise." As the Beatles say, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." What are you putting out in the world? What are you contributing to the whole? How are you remembering that we are all, you know, one finger on a, on a large hand?

• 6:34Ryan Holiday?

  Or that we're all part of the same body? The more you feel this, the more connected you are to it. Not only will your anger and fear and resentment and anxiety dissipate, but you will do better, you will be better, you will make the world a better place. That's my message for today. Go out and do a kindness. Go out and do something good. If you want to feel good, do good, as the Stoics say. And I'll leave it there. Sympathia, everyone. We are all part of the same whole. Thanks so much for listening to the Daily Stoic Podcast. Again, if you don't know this, you can get these delivered to you via email every day. You just go to dailystoic.com/email. So check it out, dailystoic.com/email.