The Daily Stoic - You Need to Arm Yourself With These Weapons

Episode Date: May 7, 2021

“In Greek mythology, characters go through katabasis—or “a going down.” Something forces them to retreat, to experience a breaking point, or in some cases literally descend into the underworld. When they emerge, it’s with heightened knowledge and understanding. These moments are painful but essential. “Although to be driven back upon oneself,” Joan Didion once wrote, “is an uneasy affair at best...it seems to me now the one condition necessary.” ”Ryan discusses how to defend yourself from what life throws at you, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow Daily Stoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@daily_stoic See 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 Stood Podcast early and add free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wundery'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. on music or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom every day life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of histories, greatest men and women.

For more, you can visit us at dailystowuck.com. You need to arm yourself with these weapons. In Greek mythology, characters go through a catabassus, a going down, something that forces them into retreat to experience a breaking point, or in some cases they literally descend into the underworld. When they emerge, it's with heightened knowledge and understanding. These moments are painful, but essential. Although to be driven back upon oneself, Joan Didian once wrote, is an uneasy affair at best. It seems to me now the one condition necessary. When you study the lives of the Stokes,

you see that they each went through something like that. Zeno's shipwrecked markets his early life, which was all but defined by loss. Seneca's two exiles, and the reckoning after years of service to Nero. Musoneus being exiled four times, Epic Titus' violent and depraved master twisting his leg with all his might and crippling him. The circumstances vary, but the knowledge emerged, does not.

Scott Herbert perfectly captured this when we interviewed him for the Daily Stoke a while back. At a particularly low moment in life, he left his home in the city and went to work on a small-scale vegetable farm. With no experience farming, destructive habits to boot, Scott quickly found he was at a breaking point. He described it as fighting a hydra, a battle with no end. Eventually you're struck by the monster, he said, and while you're lying there exhausted coughing up your own blood, you reflect on the choices that brought you here and you find the weapons you need. What are those weapons? The Stokes would say, courage, self-control, justice,

wisdom, courage to attack, self-control to stay focused, to know your limits, justice to do the right things, wisdom to learn, to see clearly, to know what that right thing is, and what your limits are, and what to attack. Xeno used those weapons to recover from his loss. I made a prosperous voyage, you would later say, when I suffered shipwreck. Marcus, Santa Cahepictetus, they too fought back, stayed strong, did what was right, kept themselves in check. If you find anything better than those four virtues, Marcus said, it must be an extraordinary thing, indeed.

Look, you don't need to wait for a catabasis or a hydra to find you. As Scott said, I didn't have to start a farm. I just needed to look inside myself. And so that's the question for you. Are you armed and ready? And are you looking within? And of course the four virtues are an idea we have emblazoned on our four virtues going in the Daily Stoke Store, which you can check out at store.dailystoke.com. Hey, Prime Members! You can listen to the Daily Stoke early and add free on Amazon Music,

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