No One Can MAKE You Upset

"These are strange times. We all have entrenched political beliefs, for which the stakes seem dreadfully high. There are trolls everywhere. There are stupid people everywhere. Both the trolls and the ignorant seem to revel in saying things designed to piss us off. And if that weren’t enough, most of us are spending extended and unprecedented amounts of time trapped inside with people whom we may love but still have the ability to make us upset."Learn how to control your feelings of upset and unease in today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better. Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow @DailyStoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/ryanholidayInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanholiday/Facebook: http://facebook.com/ryanholidayYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee 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.

• 0:06Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to The Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystoic.com. No one can make you upset. These are strange times. We all have entrenched political beliefs for which the stakes seem dreadfully high. There are trolls everywhere. There are stupid people everywhere. Both the trolls and the ignorant seem to revel in saying things designed to piss us off. And if that weren't enough, most of us are spending extended and unprecedented

• 0:51Ryan Holiday?

  amounts of time trapped inside with people whom we may love, but still have the ability to make us upset. Or actually, is that true? Can they make us upset? Not according to the Stoics. "If someone succeeds in provoking you," Epictetus said, "realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation." He meant that whatever the other person did is on them. Whatever your reaction is to their remark or action, that's on you. No one can make you angry. Only you have that power. Someone can certainly say something offensive, or stupid, or mean, but no one can make you upset. That's a choice. This is worth remembering always. It's also a theme we talked about in our recent episode

• 1:34Ryan Holiday?

  with Robert Greene, where he discussed why people on the left and right are so easily triggered. They hear things they disagree with. You shouldn't give away your power over yourself. You shouldn't let others bait you. You shouldn't allow yourself to be provoked. But most of all, you can't blame others if this happens, because you control you, nobody else. Anger is a problem that faces us all. We don't all have anger problems, but anger is a problem for everyone. You can learn how to control your temper with Daily Stoic's course, "Taming Your Temper: The 10-Day Stoic Guide to Controlling Your Anger." Stoics recognized anger as a weakness to be mastered. They knew that anger left unchecked would consume you and take over your life.

• 2:19Ryan Holiday?

  We can help you. I hope you check it out. Go to dailystoic.com/anger.