Anyone here who’s read Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Cicero? Or just familiar with the concept of stoicism?
Currently reading “The Practicing Stoic” and while it’s so so useful for everyday life, as someone who reacts emotionally to most things, this will take a lot of work lol.
For my millennial and gen z friends, here’s an instagram account to check out:
https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/?hl=en
And here are some quotes:
I’ve watched a few Youtube clips at the Daily Stoic channel. Haven’t looked into this in any detail yet but I intend to - it seems very close to my way of thinking anyway.
Heard and saw a few clips about this in YT. I think there’s a whole bunch of people following it. It’s great I think. I’m too emotionally driven to my liking.
Thanks for the book recommendation. I always thought I’d have to read up on Marcus Aurelius if I wanted to get to know more about it.
Steve Ward Bulletproof Trader book also contains views on stoicism. For anyone like me who struggles to control emotional responses , stoicism needs to be embezelled in my mindset.
I am getting better at leaving winning trades run by trading the Daily chart, mainly because there’s not a flood of pretty candles to distract me.
If I’m scalping the daily DAX BREAKOUT and suffer a loss I’ll ‘reward’ myself with a day’s no trade penalty. How stoic is that?
I did read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.
Seems to me that stoicism can easily be misinterpreted as an exercise in cutting out emotions. Such denial can get anyone stuck in a wedge that blocks the free flow of life or relaxed thinking. Rather, the strength of the stoics is in the calm observation of emotional thought, the discernment to not necessarily identify with it, an analytical filter between thought and action trigger.
Among our contemporaries one could find interest in the work of Byron Katie. I have only ever glanced at it a few times but I clock her as a stoic, even if perhaps a tad leaning on the side of new age snake oil self help.
*my Sunday blahblah after a few glasses of prosecco FWIW 
I’m listening to the audiobook and it gets too draggy when he reads their actual work lol but it definitely helps provide context to the concepts.
Same. And while I think humans are capable of changing, I think we’re just working against ourselves if we try to change the core of our personalities. BUT that being said, I’d still like to learn how others manage their emotions and at least be aware when mine is out of control.
Ah yes this book definitely clarifies this part!
Yeahh, I saw the title “The Work” and I have to say I did think that oops. How did you come across her work? Books? Social media?
There was a time when I frequently lurked (and occasionally posted) on a forum aimed at spiritual seekers. That book got mentioned a couple of times there so I looked it up on line and the general gist of the author’s approach. It wasn’t a direction I was actually drawn to but thought it was possibly useful to someone working on their emotional self.
One thing I found contributed to my being somewhat more stoic 
was to seriously cut down on my consumption of coffee hehe. It lead me to loose the taste for it and I hardly ever drink it now, sometimes a hindrance to social life I must admit. But that’s me and I wouldn’t dare advise anyone to go coffee cold turkey! Plus of course I’m still plenty emotional but I don’t take it seriously and let it pass by knowing full well it does not belong to me. 
I’m in the process of doing this but it’s so so so difficult. The newest rule I implemented is to have no coffee or any caffeine intake (I don’t drink soda etc anyway) after 12 noon. But I do still drink about 16oz of coffee in the morning. I try to make sure I drink all of it by 10AM.
Ideally I can get that down to just 8 oz but man I struggle in the afternoon.
The greatest benefit though is that I no longer struggle falling asleep as much. I used to drink about 24 oz of coffee per day and as late as 2PM but I find that not only was I extra anxious, I’m also unable to sleep well.
How much coffee do you drink these days? @TTH
Interesting thread @ponponwei 
Marcus A was c 150AD when the power and civilisation in Rome were pretty much at their peak. and there was little to indicate that anything would ever change (Like USA in the 1900s ?) - Easy to be calm and unemotional when you are the one who sets the rules and things are going well - one wonders whether he could have written thus in say 350AD ? When taxation / Inflation were beginning to go on the rampage and Beaurocracy was rampant. When the middle classes were trying to sell themselves into slavery and the Farmers were walking away from their farms ?
Holdingback emotions is a very bad strategy in the long run. If one is an emotional person (Some are not) then those emotions WILL burst out at a later stage and potentially do massive damage _ i cite “Mass shootings” as an example.
To my mind it is best to find an outlet for those emotions - even if you drive away from habitation and run and scream in an isolated field somewhere.
You do not need to act on the emotions in a social way - and it is often better to “pretend” calmness - then go immediately for a vigorous 45 minute walk - which satisfies the “fight or flight” instinct - come back and make the more rational decisions.
But please - if you are “emotional” - (as I am) then find a way to “let it go” - do not deny it !
Many years ago I invented the “3 day letter” - on receipt of an unfair and difficult contractual communication at work, I used to write a reply - then put it in a drawer, go home with a bottle of Scotch - get thoroughly psst - burbling my drunken gibberish into a “dictaphone” - let it all settle for a day - and on day 3 get out my “reply” listen to my dictaphone and now in the calm light of day - draft the true response. After one such session I was at a Surveyor’s meeting in London (which I rarely attended) and as I walked in the room went silent - then I heard siomeone say "That’s the Guy who Wrote the Mount-Pleasant Letter" (unbeknown to me my boss had circuated it to the whole firm !)
So please - don’t deny your emotions - recognise them and use them - they will give you that “Golden edge” which denying them will deny to your actions !
I often feel sad for “Stoics” - their lives must be so lacking in real grounding - until it all bursts out eventually !
The book I’m reading actually emphasizes this part - saying that stoics don’t necessarily deny emotions, they just accept them. But idk with research on brain chemicals, I feel like this is easier for some people and very difficult if not impossible for others. Stoics can sound pretty harsh sometimes as if we’re all just the same humans (I’m about to finish the book!) but a lot of concepts are very helpful in navigating one’s emotions.
Yes this is one thing I had to learn the hard way lol. I used to get riled up so quickly and write really scathing messages. Perhaps I’m getting older but these days I just pause more and think if it’s truly urgent that I respond and what good does it do anyone if I show anger or disappointment. Sometimes those emotions need to be shown though if anyone has to learn anything from whatever situation it was BUT definitely does not require an urgent reply haha.
nearly none, I no longer crave it and even the smell leaves me indifferent. Only sometimes when in Italy where coffee abstinence can border on anti-social I’ll sometimes have some out of being polite if it’s too early for wine! Then my stomach has the jitters for a couple of hours, I’m light weigh.
I also do that, well, more like 2 days or even next day for me. I write it all in detail, venom and all, it gets stuff said kindof and I sleep better. Then it sometimes gets edited with a large addition of diplomacy, most times tossed in the waste basket.
Nice post!
Do you not get sleepy during the day? What drinks do you consume? Also how many hours of sleep do you get? Sorry for the barrage of questions, just need more inspiration for getting off this caffeine reliance.
No worries about the questions @ponponwei, I’m happy to answer them but you surely are barking up the wrong tree looking for inspiration from me…
not at all but admittedly I only eat a very light lunch if at all, otherwise I find my energy sapped in the afternoon. Peeps who indulge in a substantial lunch do need coffee to stimulate digestion and overdrive it’s slowing down effect, nothing untoward there. My wife and I do a proper lunch on sundays but then lazy sunday afternoons are lovely just as that, aren’t they? Wife does enjoy/ need her coffee pick-up.
light tea at breakfast, water if or when thirsty in the day, 5 pm until end of dinner = alcohol (typically cocktail first, then wine), afterwards back to water.
I am retired (71 years old) so I have the luxury of 6½ to 7 hours of sleep most nights. Not so when I needed long working hours, tired was my normal state then, had 2 jobs and was raising kids, what else would anyone expect.
Anyway that’s to candidly answer the questions but just like with trading what works for others doesn’t often cross over. I do think that obsessing about getting off coffee habit or any other is very probably counter productive. It’s not that one has to, that sort of thought is bound to fail (glad that in some way this might connect back to the stoic topic) one bumps into a real urgency to change course when a genuine need arises and gives it assured momentum. I stopped heavy use of recreational drugs when they bored me, not because I should. Coffee as mentioned before was a much needed emotional correction, recently I halved alcohol intake because it was scarily getting out of hand healthwise, the cocktail and wine mentioned above is only a small (healthy) fraction of what it was before, there was no water after dinner then, just drink until collapse daily. What I am trying to say is that ‘shoulds’ don’t really work because they are made up, real ‘musts’ on the other hand rarely fail and they show up when it’s their time to, you can trust your body if not your thoughts, without making too much of a scene.
Fhew! Glad my session on the psycho cough is done, see you next week I guess! 
Just joking
*psycho COUCH
