Stoicism: Unlock the Secrets to a Stoic Life, Emotional Resilience and an Unshakeable Mindset and Discover Principles, Mindfulness Meditation Techniques and Habits for Bulletproof Calmness in Chaos

By Mark Jeffers

If you want to learn about Stoicism and how to control your emotions instead of having them control you, then keep reading...

Stoicism is a philosophy of life that was designed to enable people to live their lives the best way possible. This philosophy helps to lower negative emotions, maximizes positive feelings, and enables you to focus and work on your virtues of character.

In this book, you'll learn how to apply Stoicism to all stages of life and moments. You'll get reminded of what's actually important and you'll discover practical strategies for living a better life.

Here's just a tiny fraction of what you'll discover:

- Everything You Need to be Happy is Found Within

- The Power of Stoicism Philosophy For a Better Life

- Learn How to Overcome Self-doubt, Self-Criticism, and Feelings of Inadequacy

- 5 Actionable Mind Training Strategies to Eliminate Self-Defeating Thoughts

- Master the Art of Tranquility with Stoic Techniques

- Stoic Principles to Smash Creative Blocks

- Differentiating Things We Can and Can't Control

- How to Control Emotions and Minimize Worry with Stoicism

- Stoicism and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

- Inspiring Stories from Popular Stoic Followers

- A Complete Stoic Guide for Perfect Health

- And much, much more!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mark Jeffers
• Release date: Dec 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393267256

Book preview

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Introduction

What is stoicism?

Stoicism is a philosophy of life that was designed to enable individuals to live their lives the best way possible. This philosophy helps to lower negative emotions, maximizes positive feelings, and enables people to focus and work on their virtues of character. Stoicism is applicable at all stages of life and all moments. There is a framework provided for living each moment and each stage of life. People get reminded of things that are actually important in life, and they get to learn about practical strategies that will enable them to get what is really valuable in life.

Greco-Roman Philosophy

History of stoicism

Stoicism is a philosophy that was founded in 301 BC by Zeno, a philosopher from the city of Citium which is modern-day Cyprus. The philosophy obtains its name from a public market where stoics met in Athens. This public market was known as ‘Stoa Poikile’ which means painted porch.

Stoics met here and held lengthy but interesting discussions with all other interested participants. The discussions that included stoics and all other interested people were philosophical. It is through these discussions that doctrines of stoicism were developed.

Another prominent figure in the development and advancement of stoicism is Chrysippus. This gentleman is credited with eloquently developing the doctrines of stoicism and is part of the early Stoa.

The Stoics were influenced greatly by early philosophers and thinkers. They were especially influenced by the Cynics and by Socrates as well as skeptics and academics. The academics were mostly followers of the great thinker and philosopher, Plato.

Beyond this initial stage in the development of stoicism is the second stage which is known as the middle Stoa. One of the more popular philosophers at the initial and second stages is Cicero. He was not necessarily a Stoic but simply a sympathetic thinker. He was one of the major developers of the thinking that developed the doctrines of Stoa. It was also during this stage that stoicism was introduced to Rome.

The late Stoa period is the last stage in the development of this philosophy. This stage happened during the imperial reign of the Roman Empire. However, stoicism experienced a decline when Christianity became the main religion across the Roman Empire. Other schools of thought also went into decline such as Epicureanism.

As Christianity spread across the Roman Empire and stoicism began to fade, some famous historical figures stuck with the idea because it influenced them greatly even though some were critics of the philosophy. Those who were influenced by it include Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Moore, Francis Bacon, Erasmus Boethius, and other Fathers of the early church.

Other entities were also influenced by this way of life including neo-orthodox protestant theology and modern existentialism. Stoicism is seeing a resurgence and influencing plenty of practices including cognitive behavior and logotherapy. There are rather many similarities between stoicism and other philosophical approaches such as secular humanism and Buddhism.

Stoicism’s three areas of study

According to the Stoics, the most crucial aspect of their philosophy was practical ethics. Practical ethics speaks about living the best life that a person could live. Even then, they determined that other additional components were necessary to affect the ethics aspect. These additional aspects are the understanding of how the world functions as well as acceptance of the limitations as well as the capacity of human thinking.

As such, stoicism principles are based on three main aspects: logic, physics, and ethics. In stoicism, physics here refers to natural philosophy, metaphysics, and natural science. Ancient philosophers were very aware of the limitation of human wisdom and knowledge and hence were always ready and willing to change their views. This is why, over time, some aspects of stoicism were overtaken by modern knowledge, including science.

When it comes to logic, stoics often include aspects epistemology which is a theory of knowledge as well as psychology and other relevant social sciences. They came up with a logic belief system that strongly opposed that which had earlier been put forward by Aristotle.

Philosophy and ethics

Most people are interested in learning about stoic ethics rather than the logic and physics aspects of it. This is because stoic ethics is closely related to practical philosophy. Many people are of the opinion that stoicism is about disguising emotions and living life with concealed feelings.

The truth is that stoics learn how to turn their emotions around so they can attain inner peace. Certain situations that humans experience every day cause different types of emotions, including love, anger, and fear. Fortunately, we can learn how to avoid negative emotions by using the reflective mind. Using the reflective mind, we can set aside the emotions and then take the time to consider whether the emotions should be appreciated or discarded.

Stoics can clearly distinguish between acting based on sound judgment and instinctive reactions. The former is referred to as eupathos while the latter is known as propathos. The aim of stoics is to attain peace of mind based on sound judgment after assessing a situation or incident. This peace of mind status is referred to as apatheia.

The stoics believed that a successful and flourishing life is one where a person develops moral virtues in order to become a decent human and good member of society. In this regard, they developed four distinct cardinal virtues: courage, wisdom, temperance, and justice.

Positive action for any situation

Stoicism provides a solution for living an excellent life regardless of a given situation or the stage in life that one is at. People are made to think and consider what things are honorable, decent, and truly important so they can apply what is decent and honorable.

Stoicism is designed deliberately to add value to life, be actionable, and make sense. In fact, no one needs to learn any new meditation techniques or philosophical theories. Stoicism simply offers practical, beneficial, and instant ways of improving a person’s character and finding peace and tranquility in simple yet practical ways.

Reasons for the development of stoicism

Back in the third century BC, a school of philosophy developed. It originated from Ancient Rome and Greece at a time when people were really focused on leading meaningful lives devoid of drudgery and misery. Back then, people never thought that attaining material things such