The Daily Stoic - A Reason To Stick Around | Learn, Practice, Train

Episode Date: May 19, 2022

Ryan talks about the Stoics view on suicide, and reads The Daily Stoic’s entry of the day.If you or someone you know is in a mental health crisis and you live in the USA, please call 1-800-273-8255 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline today. You can also text 741741 for help in a crisis.KiwiCo is a subscription service that delivers everything your kids will need to make, create and play. Get 50% off your first month plus FREE shipping on ANY crate line with code STOIC at kiwico.com.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/emailFollow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoke Podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today. Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoke Podcast. On Thursdays, we do double duty, not just reading our daily meditation, but also reading a passage from the book, the daily Stoic, 366 meditations on wisdom, perseverance, and the art of living, which I wrote with my wonderful co-author and collaborator, Steve Enhancelman. And so today, we'll give you a quick meditation from one of the Stoics, from Epititus Markis

Relius, Seneca, then some analysis for me, and then we send you out into the world to do your best to turn these words into works. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wunderree's podcast business wars. And in our new season, Walmart must fight off target, the new discounter that's both savvy and fashion forward. Listen to business wars on Amazon music or wherever you get your podcasts.

A reason to stick around. It's one of the darkest and most sensitive subjects in Stoicism. Suicide. Cato took his own life rather than submit to Caesar. Seneca took his own life under duress from Nero. The Stoics spoke of suicide as the open door. A choice opened to us at any moment. Given the tyrants, the evil, the slavery, and the torture that the Stoics faced in their

day, their contemplation of suicide makes sense. Here in the modern world, in the time of a pandemic, an economic uncertainty that has depression rates spiking, it's worth taking a moment to remind ourselves that this is a subject that should not be taken lightly or spoken of flippantly. The Stilux may have believed that suicide was a choice we all have, but they were still pretty clear.

It was the wrong choice. Marcus Aurelis was clearly depressive by nature. He was racked by constant pain. He dealt with profound tragedy. No one should bury a child. He had incredible burdens on his shoulders. And yet, he stuck around. He struggled through.

Because he knew that life was worth it. He knew there was darkness ahead. He'd seen plenty of it already. But he also knew that there would be bright spots as well. Bright spots that broke up and blunted the darkness. He probably would have also agreed with the classic observation from Hamlet, to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country, from whose born no traveler returns, puzzles the will, and makes us rather bear those ills we have,

then fly to others. We know not of." It's the perfect stoic logic applied to a sensitive topic. What makes you so sure that what's on the other side is a relief. Sure science and religion give us hints, but no assurances. Marcus Aurelius reminds himself in meditations to push through the pain because it will either end or he will. He knew it was arrogant to assume that he could find a way around it. He knew that to mess with fate was to potentially invite a worse fate. So he stuck around. He did

the best he could, which is all we can do, which is what we have to do. You, me, everyone, no one is saying that life is perfect. We're just suggesting that a little humility in the form of surrender to the uncomfortable realities of life don't fly off to something worse. Bear what you can now because you can bear it. We know that you can. If you live in the United States and are in a suicidal crisis or emotional distress call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, seriously call a stoke, can't

be afraid to ask for help. It's not a surrender in any way. And if you're in another country, you can actually pull up a list of suicide crisis hotlines. I found one on Wikipedia. Just Google it. Seriously, if you're struggling with it, don't go through the open door. Ask for help. It's not giving up.

It will make a difference. Don't go anywhere. Learn practice train. And I'm reading to you today from the Daily Stoic 366 Meditations on Wisdom Perseverance in the Art of Living by yours truly, my co-author and translator, Steve Enhancelman. You can get signed copies, by the way, in the Daily Stoic store, over a million copies of the Daily Stoic and print now.

It's been just such a lovely experience to watch it. It's been more than 250 weeks, consecutive weeks on the best cellist. It's just an awesome experience. But I hope you check it out. We have a premium leather edition at store.dailystoke.com as well. But let's get on with today's reading. And the first quote comes to us from Epic Teedus 219 and the discourses. That's why philosophers warn us not to be satisfied with mere learning, but to add practice and then training, he says. For as time passes, we forget what we learn and end up doing the opposite and hold opinions the opposite of what we should hold. And then we meditate very few people can simply watch an instructional video or hear something

explained and then know backward and forward how to do it. Most of us actually have to do something several times in order to truly learn. One of the hallmarks of the martial arts, military training, athletic training of almost any kind is the hours upon hours of monotonous practice. An athlete at the highest level will train for years to perform movements that can last mere seconds or less. The two-minute joe, how to escape from a chokehold, the perfect jumper, simply knowing isn't enough. It must be absorbed into the muscles in the body.

It must become part of us. So we risk losing it the second we experience, stress or difficulty. And this is true with philosophical principles as well. You can't just hear something once and expect to rely on it when the world is crashing down around us. Remember Mark Sirulis wasn't writing his meditations for other people.

He was actively meditating for himself. Even as a successful wise and experienced man, he was until the last days of his life practicing and training to do the right thing. Like a black belt, he was still showing up to the Dojo every day to rule. Like a professional athlete. He still showed up to practice each week, even though others thought it was unnecessary. I just, it's funny, I'm recording this shortly after I just got off recording the podcast with Admiral James Stavridis, his new book to risk it all, nine conflicts in the Crucible decision, which was a great book. I recommend it. I'm not sure if this is coming up before or after the interview,

but it doesn't really matter. One of the things we talked about in that interview was, it's sort of framework for responding well to the Crucible of Decision. And he says that you have to prepare in advance, right? You have to train, as they say in the military, you don't rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your training. You have to meditate on this stuff over and over and over again. He says, two big things. He says, one, you have to know what you believe.

You have to know your standards. He talks about in his other great book, which I recommend, Sailing True North. He's basically saying, what's true North? What do you believe? What do you hold important? What do you ascribe to? Right?

And that's partly why we study the stillyx to learn what we hold sacred or dear, what the right thing is. And he says, you also have to know yourself, what you're capable of, what your weaknesses are, what your tendencies are, what your biases are. So then in that moment of stress or difficulty or pressure, you know what you need to think about, what you need to turn to,

what you default to. It's spring here in Texas and one of the great things about spring is doing outdoor projects with my kids. One of the best Kiwi co-k kits that I've done with my kids, they built this stomp rocket and we just spent hours out in the yard shooting it up in the air, tracking it down, shooting it up in the air, tracking it down.

They just had an amazing time. If you're looking to have some outside, non-screen time play, hands on, science-based, work with your hands, projects, Ki KiwiCo is it. Kids can discover the engineering and mechanics behind everyday objects, the science and chemistry of cooking, geography and culture, brand new art and design techniques, all through these fun hands-on projects that you can do together. I strongly suggest you check it out. Step into spring and celebrate the season

of discovery with KiwiCo subscription, get 30% off your first month plus free shipping on any crate line with code Stoic at KiwiCo.com. That's 30% off your first month. KiwiCo.com promo code Stoic. EpicTita says that the key of Stoicism is so that when life hits you with stuff, you're able to say, this is what I trained for. And I do feel when I think about the pandemic, I mean, it's stressful and difficult and I messed it up in so many ways and there's things I would do differently. But I do feel some gratitude for what stoicism prepared me for and I feel pride in how I deployed and used that stoicism to keep myself safe, to keep my family safe, to know what to value, to know

what my obligations were, to how to get through it, how to get through the boredom of it and the difficulty of it and the stress of it and all those things, I had prepared for it, right? And I think epictetus is reminding us though that it's not a single preparation that if you prepare once, the second you stop, entropy is working on that preparation. There's an expiration date to it. You have to constantly be updating and reinforcing

and adding and re and reevaluating and going over it over it over it. And that's what meditation is to me. It's Marcus really saying stuff that he already knows. He knows this stuff. He's studied it a bazillion times. He's heard it a billion times, but he's playing his scales each morning. He's reviewing his note cards before the test each day, right? He's going back over the advice from his father and stepfather and mentors and heroes. He's getting it fresh in his mind. He's reminding himself of who he is, what he needs to do, what true North is, so that in those moments of crisis, in his case, an actual pandemic,

a war, a flood, a coup, all this stuff, he was there. And think about epictetus, right? First off, he studies and learns Stoicism wise, a slave, it comes a philosopher. But then, right, exile comes for him. And he has to go through that again. But if he hadn't been preparing and thinking and talking, keeping these thoughts in hand, that's the other stoke idea to go through that again, but if he hadn't been preparing and thinking and talking, keeping these thoughts at hand, that's the other stoke idea to write these things down, talk about them, post them up, go through it over and over and over again, keep it top of mind.

That's what this is about. That's what we're doing here at Daily Stoke. That's why this is a daily practice. That's why I wrote the Daily Book. That's why the journal is there. It's about the daily practice and the daily training of it. And I hope you avail yourself of it. So when that moment comes, when you find yourself

in the crucible of decision, you can do what you need to do. You can meet destiny as it hopes you will. And that's the thought for today. Do check out To Risk It All, Nine Conflicts in the Crucible of Decision. It's a great new book by Admiral James DeVritis, Carried at the Pain at Ports. You can get it anywhere, books are sold. It's probably a great audio book too. And I really appreciated him coming on the podcast. So stay

tuned or look at that interview if you haven't checked it out already. And I'll talk to you soon. Thanks so much for listening to the Daily Stoke podcast. If you don't know this, you can get these delivered to you via email every day, check it out at dailystoke.com slash email. Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to the Daily Stoke early and ad free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad free with Wondery Plus in Apple

podcasts. Raising kids can be one of the greatest rewards of a parent's life. But come on, someday, parenting is unbearable. I love my kid, but is a new parenting podcast from Wondery that shares a refreshingly honest and insightful take on parenting. Hosted by myself, Megan Galey, Chris Garcia, and Kurt Brownauer, we will be your resident not-so-expert-experts. Each week we'll share a parenting story that'll have you laughing, nodding, and thinking.

Oh yeah, I have absolutely been there. We'll talk about what went right and wrong. What would we do differently? And the next time you step on yet another stray Lego in the middle of the night, you'll feel less alone. So if you like to laugh with us as we talk about the hardest job in the world, listen to, I love my kid, but wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app.

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