You Can Find Peace

“There’s a chapter in Epictetus’ Discourses entirely about forlornness (or solitude, depending on the translation), the state where one feels miserably and helplessly lonely. His aim is to make a careful distinction. Lonely and alone are not synonymous. One can be alone, in their own company, and feel entirely connected and at peace with the world, just as one can be in a crowd and feel miserably lonely. Similarly, Epictetus adds, the world can be at war while one is at peace, just as the world can be at peace while one is at war.”Ryan discusses how we can always choose our response, even in the most dire of circumstances, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast. The Daily Stoic is $1.99 as an ebook right now (UK discounted, too)!***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 Daily Stoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: 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.

• 0:04Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom, designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom in everyday 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.

• 0:26Ryan Holiday?

  You can find peace. There's a chapter in Epictetus's Discourses entirely about forlornness, or solitude, depending on the translation, that state where one feels miserable and helplessly lonely. His aim was to make a careful distinction. Lonely and alone are not synonymous. One can be alone in their own company and feel entirely connected and at peace with the world, just as one can be in a crowd and feel miserably alone. Similarly, Epictetus adds, "The world can be at war while one is at peace, just as the world can be at peace while one is at war." Even while the world, as it is right now, is in a state of utter chaos, while we are isolated from our loved ones,

• 1:10Ryan Holiday?

  while we are stranded indefinitely, while everything seems miserable and everyone forlorn, we don't have to be. As Epictetus said, "The doctrine of the philosophers promises to give us peace from these troubles." What kind of forlornness is left then to talk about? What kind of helplessness? Why make ourselves worse than little children? When they are left alone, what do they do? They gather up shreds and dust and build something or other, and then tear it down and build something else again. And so, they are never at loss as to how to spend their time. Am I then, if you set sail, to sit down and cry because I am left alone and forlorn in that fashion? Shouldn't I have dust? Shouldn't I have things to play with? Remember, even when things are stressful,

• 1:55Ryan Holiday?

  being stressed is a choice. Just because you're by yourself doesn't mean you have to be lonely or depressed. Shipwrecked and alone in Athens, Zeno founded this philosophy. Thrice exiled, Seneca and Musonius wrote and philosophized. Enslaved, Epictetus remained free and resilient. Overwhelmed and at war, Marcus Aurelius found peace while writing Meditations. You have the power to find that too. You have what it takes to feel good, even when things are bad, even when you are stressed, because you can choose.

• 2:29Ryan Holiday?

  The Daily Stoic is $1.99 as an ebook right now to kick off 2021, and we have a premium leather edition of the book available as well. When I published The Daily Stoic in 2016, I had no idea it would go on to sell more than a million copies in 30 languages. It's been hundreds of weeks on the bestseller list. If you haven't read it yet or want to give it as a gift, this is as cheap as the book will ever get. I hope you enjoy it. I hope you kick the year off right, not just with some reading, but with some rereading and absorbing, making the study of Stoicism a practice. Hopefully, The Daily Stoic can be part of that. But you can do it with any of the Stoics. Check out The Daily Stoic, $1.99 as an ebook. It's discounted in the UK as well.

• 3:10Ryan Holiday?

  Or you can get the cool new leather-bound edition in the Daily Stoic store. These are available everywhere books are sold. You will.