The Little Book of Stoicism: Timeless Wisdom to Gain Resilience, Confidence, and Calmness

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There are three things in your composition: body, breath, and mind. The first two are yours to the extent that you must take care for them, but only the third is in the full sense your own.” Marcus Aurelius Or in other words, when we solely depend on outside events to feel happy, we’ll never feel true contentment. We’ll jump from one thing to another, hoping, the next item will be the ONE that will make all the difference. But it’s not. It never is. Always keep a role model in mind. Imagine this person to constantly be watching you and your actions. This will bring more awareness into your daily life and enable you to choose your actions more deliberately. If we look around, we see countless people who pursued their dreams of a golden mansion, a Porsche 911, and a six-figure job, and yet they’re not happier than before with the moldy flat, the rusty old car, and the cheap job. They’re living by a formula that looks something like this: If you work hard, you’ll be successful, and once you’re successful, then you’ll be happy. Or, if I finish/get/achieve such and such, then I’ll be happy. The only problem? This formula is broken. And after following this formula for years, these people are wondering: Is this really all life has to offer?

This tiny little book, from an author who’s still unpopular, sought to document the best stoic practices and present them in an easily graspable way. The outcome? A fresh squeeze on the sometimes hard to understand philosophic topics we all must follow if we want to make our stay on the planet Earth a bit more bearable. The Little Book of Stoicism is the perfect read for someone who’s just getting started in the Stoic teachings. The Core Idea:He devised it as a tool to explain Stoicism in a way that it’s easier for the new students to remember and understand some of the basic tenets of Stoicism. My main takeaway: Dominating our emotions and being capable of controlling them even when we’re challenged is essential for our well-being. Notable Quotes: What is it then that we have control over? Only a few things—our voluntary judgments and actions. We can decide what events mean to us and how we want to react to them. And our actions, we can choose to align them with virtue. All else is not under our control. The easiest way to understand living with areté—at all times, try to be the best you can be, try to choose the appropriate action/response, and simply try to be a good person with the concern for others and nature as a whole. Promise #1: Eudaimonia “Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig.” - Marcus Aurelius Imagine the best version of yourself. Look inside, do you see and know who that highest version of you is, the one who acts right in all situations, the one who makes no mistakes and seems unbeatable? If you’re anything like me and have been trying to improve yourself, then you probably know this ideal version of yourself. Well, in G reek, this best version would be the inner daimon, an inner spirit or divine spark. For the Stoics and all other schools of ancient philosophy, the ultimate goal of life was eudaimonia, to become good (eu) with your inner daimon. (Not to be confused with demon, which is a bad spirit.)

Live with Arete: In every breathing moment, you should strive for excellence. Living in arete is all about becoming the highest version of yourself in anything you do. Just like the tree must tighten its grip not to fall down with every breeze, we must strengthen our position if we don’t want to be swept off our feet by every trifle. This is what Stoic philosophy is here for—it will make you stronger and let the same rain and wind appear lighter and keep you on your feet at all times. In other words, it will prepare you to deal more effectively with whatever stormy weather life throws at you. Things are as they are because that’s how it’s meant to be. Our emotional pain emanates from confusing the things which are up to us and those that aren’t. Something happens (stimulus) and then we react to it (response). Oftentimes, this response happens automatically, unconsciously, and without us thinking about it. We can easily observe this behavior in other You and I, we’re responsible for our own flourishing. We’re responsible for not letting our happiness depend on external circumstances—we shouldn’t let the rain, annoying strangers, or a leaking washing machine decide upon our wellbeing. Otherwise, we become helpless victims of life circumstances out of hand. As a Stoic student, you learn that only you can ruin your life and only you can refuse to let your inner self be conquered by whatever nasty challenge life throws at you.For the sake of disclosure, I must say that this is probably the first review where I have been in touch with the author before reading the book. To explain this idea better, in the book, the author shares a story of an archer who’s about to release an arrow. Everything prior to taking the shoot is within the archer’s power. The moment the arrow is up in the air, he has no control over the situation. He can simply wait for the outcome which is something beyond his control.