The Stoic Life - A Balanced Way to Process Life

I recently started studying stoicism, a way to navigate life that includes the following philosophies:

• Enjoy what life has to offer without clinging to it. Practice negative visualization to imagine you do not have things and people in your life so that you can find awe in having them.

• Prepare for things to become worse, so you can protect and enjoy what you have.

• Focus on what you can control. This includes people you let into your life and people you work with.

 Many people mistakenly think of stoicism as anti-emotion. Instead, it focuses on minimizing negative emotions by preventing them from happening and choosing how we react to situations. One good exercise is to visibly take five seconds to gain control before responding when presented with a challenge (or a challenging person).
 
Ryan Holiday has a newsletter – The Daily Stoic. I recently joined it and welcome you to do the same. It would be great to share thoughts with you. I have also heard the book Letter From a Stoic by Seneca is an excellent introduction to stoicism. I would love to hear your thoughts and experience with this topic.

I typed this blog on the way home from England, where we just went to visit our youngest daughter for a week. She has had a great start to graduate school. I spent several days in the Cotswolds, with minimal internet and my phone on airplane mode. It was interesting to see how uncomfortable that made me. That is another good reminder to spend more time stopping, unplugging, and enjoying the moment.

Cheers,

BILL BROWN
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615.202.6446