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The Stoic May 27 Final JOURNAL OF THE STOIC GYM How to flourish How to choose wisely How to deal with others How to deal with our brief life How to die well PLUS BOOK REVIEW STOIC DAILY QUOTES MARCUS AURELIUS BIOGRAPHY (2) THE STOIC JOURNAL OF THE STOIC GYM Judging life by its length In the 5,000 year old epic Gilgamesh, well lived. the King of Uruk, Gilgamesh sets out to find the secret of immortality. In his article, Piotr Stankiewicz He undertakes an ardous journey argues that we should be concerned and faces many dangers in his quest. with the quality of life and not the In the end, he comes to the under- quantity of time. The quality life is standing that humans cannot be not to be found in transient immortals. All we can do is to live pleasures, but in living a life that is our lives well here on this earth. worth living - one that is rooted in Stoic wisdom as expressed in its Yet, 5,000 years later we have not virtues. stopped or slowed down our quest for immortality. We complain our If death itself is neither ‘good’ nor life is not long enough. Not so, says ‘bad’, then ‘good’ and ‘bad’ can only Seneca. Our problem is not that we come from how we consider death, have a short life, but that we how we talk about it, how we treat squander what we have been given. people who are dying, says Flora THE STOIC Bernard. It is not that we have a short time to live, Journal of The Stoic Gym but we waste so much of it. - Seneca On So what is important is not Volume 3 Issue 5 the Shortness of Life. increasing the number of days we May 2021 live but increasing the quality of © The Stoic Gym, 2021 He goes on to say, those days, however few or many they may be. Published by TheStoicGym.com Life is long if you know how to use it. But one man is grappled by insatiable greed, Brittany Polat points out that when Issued free online another by laborious dedication to useless we focus on our responses to the Subscribe here tasks. One man is soaked in wine, another world, rather than getting upset sluggish with idleness... Many pursue no about what the world is doing, we fixed goal, but are tossed about in ever- begin to develop a steadiness of Follow us on changing designs by fickleness which is mind that eventually leads to long- www.TheStoicGym.com shifting, inconstant, never satisfied with lasting happiness. twitter@thestoicgym itself. Facebook: The Stoic Gym How do we do that? The simplest Yet we want to go on living without way to do so is to sit down and make BACK ISSUES ever realizing, notes, on paper or digitally, at the end of the day, and to examine what The Stoic Gym does not carry back It is only a small part of our life we really we’ve done well, done less well, and issues of THE STOIC. They may, live. Indeed all the rest is not life but left undone, writes Meredith Kunz. however, be obtained from merely time. Magzter.com: Jonas Salzgeber writes that, while we Yes, indeed. What we need to do is are alive, we are made to cooperate https://bit.ly/3aVVmeY transform the time we are given into with each other. He explains six ways life. When we don’t do this, no we can do this that will lead us to a amount of time will lead us to a life flourishing life. THE STOIC 2 MAY 2021 THE STOIC JOURNAL OF THE STOIC GYM MAY 2021 Living & dying the Stoic way What is in this issue FEATURE ARTICLES CHUCK CHAKRAPANI Judging life by its length 2 BRITTANY POLAT What does it mean to flourish? 5 JONAS SALZGEBER How to deal with people 6 MEREDITH A. KUNZ How to measure ourselves 8 PIOTR STANKIEWICZ How to increase the quality of our lives 10 FLORA BERNARD Can we die a good death? 12 ELBERT HUBBARD The story of Marcus Aurelius - 2 13 BOOK REVIEW WHITING & KONSTANTAKOS Being Better 7 DAILY PRACTICE THE STOIC GYM Stoic Every Day 15 STOIC WORLD STOICON-X WOMEN June 1, 2021 14 STOIC FELLOWSHIPS International Stoic Groups Directory 17 THE STOIC GYM Free Books on Stoicism 3 THE STOIC 3 MAY 2021 HOW TO LIVE LIKE JUST MARCUS RELEASED! AURELIUS “THE PERFECT GUIDED JURNAL.” TIM LEBON WHAT IT IS How to Live Like Marcus Aurelius( https://amzn.to/2Pt027t) offers a way to lead a life that is worth living: a life that is pleasant, serene, and a life that is not a struggle. No matter how much time we devote to reading Marcus Aurelius, no benefit will come of it unless we practice what he says. But how do we practice it? That’swhere this journal comes in. HOWIT WORKS For each day of the year, this book has three sections: THINK: a short carefully selected quote from Marcus Aurelius, PRACTICE: a brief suggestion on how to practice the quote, and WRITE: a space for you to writeryour thoughts and experiences. HOWMUCHTIME DOES IT TAKE The quotes and practices are so structured as to not demand more that a few minutes of your time everyday. WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT You can have a completely new outlook on life - a life full of confidence, kindness, serenity,and beauty - by practicing the exercises for the next 52 weeks.. It is hard to think and practice Marcus Aurelius every day for a year and not be transformed by that experience.. WHAT THE PAGES LOOK LIKE Get your first two weeks free here! https://thestoicgym.com/books/book-delivery THE STOIC 4 MAY 2021 What does it mean to �ourish? A life well-lived Creating the state of mind expectations about what is possible for you to change. Remember, if As Stoics we often talk about living a So if you’d like to learn how to something is outside of your good life and being happy. And it goes flourish, in the Stoic sense of the control, it doesn’t make sense to without saying that we all want to be word, start by focusing on your happy. responses to the world. Instead of get upset about it. complaining about your life or feeling • Choice. After thinking through But what do we mean when we say sorry for yourself, just think about your character, your place in the happy? The ancient Stoics had a very offering the best possible response to cosmos, and what you can control, specific term for what we are aiming at: whatever situation you find yourself in. it’s time to choose your response eudaimonia, or the deep, rich sense of Here’s a simple formula for staying to the situation. You may not make satisfaction that comes with a life well focused on a Stoic response: a perfect choice every time--after lived. all, no one can know everything-- Character + Cosmos + Control = Choice but thinking through these Stoic scholar A.A. Long, in his guidelines will help you make the Epictetus: A Stoic and Socratic Guide to Let’s look briefly at each element of best choice possible, given your Life, defines eudaimonia as a “condition this formula. understanding of the situation. in which a person of excellent • Character. You create your character is living optimally well, When you focus on your response to flourishing, doing admirably, and character from your beliefs about the world, rather than getting upset steadily enjoying the best mindset that the world and your habitual about what the world is doing, you is available to human beings” In fact, responses to events. Your begin to develop a steadiness of mind many of us today use the term character develops over time and that eventually leads to long-lasting flourishing when we want to talk about makes you who you are. deep, long-lasting happiness. • Cosmos. You are one small part happiness. No one ever said flourishing of a vast and beautiful world. is easy, but it is certainly possible to Flourishing as a state of mind When we only focus on ourselves, make progress. So no matter where it can sometimes seem like nothing you are, and no matter what conditions Flourishing is not an external is working out well for us. But you may face, you can start to develop condition, but rather a state of mind. when we think about how we are “the best mindset that is available to We can flourish no matter what is connected to other people and human beings”. Make the choice to going on in our lives because our things, we see how our lives fit into flourish! mental fitness does not depend on everything else, like one piece of a external factors. Even if the world jigsaw puzzle. Knowing where we around you is crumbling, or if fortune Brittany Polat, author of Tranquility fit into the big picture can help us does not hand you an easy life, it is still Parenting: A Guide to Staying Calm, within your power to flourish. That’s regain a sense of perspective and Mindful, and Engaged, holds a Ph.D. in because our state of mind depends on inner peace. applied linguistics but currently our own character and our responses • Control. In any situation, you can researches and writes about Stoic to the world. We can feel deep pause to ask yourself, “What in psychology and philosophy. Brittany's satisfaction knowing that we have this situation is really up to me? latest project is Living in Agreement, responded well, even in a difficult What is not up to me?” This where she applies her lifelong interest situation.
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