Stoicism for a Better Life – Weekly exercise (April 10, 2019)

Hello there,

This week for our guidance, let us look at Seneca – LXII 1:

“Wherever I am, I am master of myself. For I do not surrender myself to my affairs, but loan myself to them, and I do not hunt out excuses for wasting my time.”

“Being busy for the sake of being busy” is something most, if not all of us are guilty of. Everything we do is important in their own right, but most of them are not essential to a good life. Seneca reminds us, as much as we want to get done, we only have a set number of hours in a day (and before we die) and ultimately we are masters of our own time and how we spend it.

Saying you don’t have enough time is, in reality, saying “this is not more important to me than the other thing I will do now.” So this week catch yourself when you say you are too busy for something or “I don’t have time for that”. Reflect on it to see if this indeed is the case. You will see (more often than you would like to admit) you use this excuse to avoid doing things that are truly important in your life.

Good luck to all this week, and as usual, share your stories if you feel like it (many get inspiration from just reading about others’ journeys).

Much love

Anderson Silver

(Author of “Your User’s Manual” and “Vol 2: Your Duality Within”)