Stoicism for a Better Life – Weekly exercise (October 3, 2021)

Hello there,

For this week’s exercise let us look at some words from Epictetus Discourses I 4-32:

“We offer the gods sacrifice because they gave us wheat and wine. But they have produced such wonderful fruit in a human mind, as part of their plan to bestow on humanity the true secret of happiness. Are we going to forget to express our gratitude to them on that account?”

We lose ourselves in areas of Stoicism regarding indifference and ascension and time management, but we have not spent any time recently on (what I consider to be) the ultimate precept of Stoicism: Our rational minds. All the logic behind the school of thought comes from the fact that the gods have gifted us this capacity for reason (keep in mind that ancients used gods/universe/nature interchangeably).

So this week, let us be thankful for our capacity for reason and use it! For the next seven days, actively think of moments/events/times/situations/etc. where you can substitute your rational minds thoughts/judgments/decisions for action, with the animal brains primitive instincts. Someone is rude, don’t react, don’t let the Proto emotions (the animal mind’s primitive reactions) take over. think rationally and put yourself in the shoes of your “antagonizer” and forgive them. Having a hard time with motivation? Don’t let the animal mind’s instincts of wanting to rest take over, but use your rational mind to push a little more.

This weeks’ exercise has very broad applications and it would be great to hear how & where you applied your rational mind instead of defaulting to your primitive mind’s “autopilot”. If you have time, do share your experiences to help motivate the rest of us!

Much love to you all.

Anderson Silver, Stoicism for a Better Life

(Author of “Your User’s Manual”, “Vol 2: Your Duality Within” & “Vol 3: Your Dichotomy of Control”)