Stoicism for a Better Life – Weekly exercise (April 26, 2020)

Hello there,

Let’s stick with the short and prompt approach to these weekly exercise posts, and who better than the most direct of our ancient guides to help us once again. This is from Epictetus’ Discourses IV 4.23:

“In short, you must remember this – that if you hold anything dear outside of your own reasoned choice, you will have destroyed your capacity for choice.” 

Attachments to the status (quo) of anything (person, image, job, wealth, status, idea, etc) is dangerous for one reason: They are outside of your reasoned choice. Everything in the Cosmos, and (in a more micro look) everything around us is in a constant state of flux and change. We have certain things/ideas/people for a while and then we lose them. The only permanent thing is your prohairesis, that is, your faculty of judgment.

Given that the only constant throughout your life is your own capacity for rational thought (judgment and decisions for actions), wouldn’t it then make sense to divert as much energy as you can to worrying about your own thoughts? As opposed to what’s going on around you? So, as a practical exercise this week, see if you can’t live for 5 minutes without focusing on anything external other than your own rational mind. Focus only on how good/bad your judgments and decisions for actions re. Then try and do it for 10 minutes at a time. Then 20. Then half an hour… You get the idea.

And don’t kid yourself, this is much easier said than done. Don’t be hard on yourself if you can’t remain focused on the right thing (your Prohairesis) for more than a few minutes at a time. But this is the purpose of the exercise…let us strengthen that which is the most consistent and important in our lives.

As always, I wish you a wise, tranquil and productive week.  Share some of your challenges and/or accomplishments if you would like (on Twitter, Reddit or on my Patreon page). I love hearing about them and let’s keep the conversation going throughout the week.

Anderson Silver

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