The Daily Stoic - When the World Caves In… | Practice Love

Episode Date: October 11, 2021

Ryan discusses the reliability of Stoicism during tough times, and reads this week’s meditation from The Daily Stoic Journal, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast.Blinkist is the app that gets you fifteen-minute summaries of the best nonfiction books out there. Blinkist lets you get the topline information and the most important points from the most important nonfiction books out there, whether it’s Ryan’s own The Daily Stoic, Yuval Harari’s Sapiens, and more. Go to blinkist.com/stoic, try it free for 7 days, and save 25% off your new subscription, too.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://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 the Daily Stoke podcast each day. We bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stokes illustrated with stories from history Current events and literature to help you be better at what you do. And at the beginning of the week, we try to do a deeper dive, setting a kind of stoic intention for the week, something to meditate on, something to think on, something to leave you with, to journal about, whatever it is you happen to be doing.

So let's get into it. 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. When the world caves in, imagine Cato's despair as Caesar proved unstoppable. Imagine Seneca and Thracia and Epochetus's neerus spun out of control. Imagine Marcus as the triple threats of war and

plague and flood converged. It must have felt as it has for many of us in the last 18 months that the world was caving in. It was hopeless., that it was unfair, that it was only going to get worse. But we should remember that when everything falls apart, there is something we can always depend on, and that is philosophy. William Alexander Percy, who survived combat in World War I and the death of his father and brother to suicide and the great flood of 1927 would say of Stoicism that when all is lost, it stands fast.

That's what Cato, Ensenica, and Thrasian, Epictetus, and Marcus Arelius found in the pages of the books they loved and their own journals and the wisdom they had been taught, they had a dependable support system. They found something that gave them hope, gave them purpose, gave them clarity. As bad as things are today, it should console and inspire you that Stoicism is still here. It has survived all those tragedies and countless others for more than 2,000 years. And so has humanity, it's worth pointing out. The world only feels like it is caving in. Stoicism stands fast, courage,

temperance, justice wisdom, these are constants, rely on them, turn to them, hold fast to them. Practice, love. The stoic notion of sympathy that we are all part of an organic whole connected by mutual interests and affinities is greater than the golden rule. Don't treat others how you would like to be treated. Treat them like you would treat yourself, because we are all one. Santa Cah said that whenever he encountered another human being, he saw an opportunity for kindness. And he learned from Haccato of Rhodes that if you want to be loved, there's only one

thing you can do. Love others. Who can you give love to this week? What kindness can you expend? How can you show how you feel? The strangers to friends and family. And how can you show them that you actually believe we are all part of the same whole? And this is from this week's entry in the Daily Steoic Journal, 366 days of writing and reflection on the

art of living by yours truly and my co-writer and translator, Stephen Hanselman. I actually do this journal every single day. There's a question in the morning, a question in the afternoon, and there's these sort of weekly meditations. As Epictetus says, every day and night, we keep thoughts like this at hand, write them, read them aloud, and talk to yourself and others about them. You can check out the Daily Stoke Journal anywhere books are sold. You can also get a signed personalized copy from me in the Daily Stoke store.

It's store.dailystoke.com. In the All is One chapter of stillness is the key. There's a quote I like from Seneca says, all that you behold, that which comprises both God and man is one. We are all part of one great body. And there's this quote I love from Edgar Mitchell, the astronaut who was up in space looking down at the earth. And he says that he felt an instant global consciousness of people orientation and intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world and a compulsion to do something about it.

So this idea that we are all one, this sympathy idea to me, is the essence of stoicism. Stoicism is to make you an island to disconnect you from other people. Quite the contrary, Asenica says it's to make you kinder and more connected to other people. And Asenica, the three quotes we have today, one is Seneca quoting Haccato, he says, I can teach you a love potion made without any drugs, herbs, or special spell if you would be loved, love. And then in the happy life, Seneca says, a benefit should be kept like a buried treasure

only to be dug up in necessity. Nature bids us to do well by all, wherever there is a human being, we have an opportunity for kindness. And then in moral letters letters 95, he says, nature produced us as a family, since we all sprang from the same source and towards the same end. Nature bestowed upon us a mutual love and joined us together as friends. I think going out into nature, looking at something majestic, or as Agramitial did, looking at the earth from a distance. It does give you

this sense of our interconnectedness. It makes a lot of the things that we get angry about, feel very petty and small and insignificant. Being around your kids does this as well. You see just how sweet and innocent and pure they are. It feels weird to carry anger or resentment about anything or anyone. they are and it feels weird to carry anger or resentment about anything or anyone. But one of the things I wanted to do in today's episode, I wanted to riff give you a little tick-tock that we did that was popular. You might think that the stokes are kind of these unfeeling people and I get that, but it's actually not true at all. Senika says, if you want love in your life, he says then love. Marcus really says that he learns from one of his mentors

to be free of passions, yes, but full of love. Do you have affection for other people? If you want to feel good, if you want to be loved by other people, it's about what you put out in the world. As the Beatles say, it's about the energy you put out in the world, because ultimately that's what you control. If you want to feel better, don't go expecting other people to validate you, other people to give you what you want, give what you control. If you want to feel better, don't go expecting other people to validate you, other people to

give you what you want, give what you want. Marcus Rios says, if you want to feel good, do good, if you want to feel loved, put love out in the world, put affection out in the world. See everyone you meet, as Seneca says, as an opportunity to practice kindness and the rest will take care of itself, I promise. As the Beatles say, in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. What are you putting out in the world? What are you contributing to the whole?

How are you remembering that we are all, you know, one finger on a large hand or that we're all part of the same body? The more you feel this, the more connected you are to it. Not only will your anger and fear and resentment and anxiety dissipate, but you will do better, you will be better, you will make the world a better place. That's my message for today. Go out and do a kindness, go out and do something good. If you want to feel good, do good as the Stoic say say and I'll leave it there. Sympathia everyone, we are all part of the same whole. Thanks so much for listening to the Daily Stoke Podcast.

Again, if you don't know this, you can get these delivered to you via email every day. You just go to dailystoke.com slash email. So check it out at dailystoke.com slash email. Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic 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. Hey there listeners, while we take a little break here, I want to tell you about another podcast that I think you'll like. plus in Apple podcasts. down with hundreds of founders behind well-known companies like Headspace, Manduka Yoga mats, Soul Cycle, and Kodopaxi, as well as entrepreneurs working to solve some of the biggest problems

of our time, like developing technology that pulls energy from the ground to heat in cool homes, or even figuring out how to make drinking water from air and sunlight. Together, they discuss their entire journey from day one, and all the skills they had to learn along the way, like confronting big challenges, and how to lead through uncertainty. So if you want to get inspired and learn how to think like an entrepreneur, check out how I built this,

wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and add free on the Amazon or Wonder yet. And add free on the Amazon or Wonder yet.