On Meditations

You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.

The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.

The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.

Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.

Our life is what our thoughts make it.

The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.

How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.

• Marcus Aurelius

These are all from Meditations. I could keep pasting, I could paste the whole thing. You can pick up the book at any point and read a few lines, and they occasionally contain very useful wisdom.

The principles of stoicism entail 1) understanding your sphere of control. Remembering that you can't control most things in this life, but that you really can control you. Remembering that the changes of the world are all composed of individual people. And, using that, 2) to live virtuously. Be the positive change you wish to see in the world, that's all stoicism is saying.

These tie in to my thoughts on mental health. Most conditions are natural human reactions to their environments and stimuli. ADHD is so prevalent now because everyone's getting very used to shortform media (twitter, tiktok). Depression is on the rise because, jesus, shit is bad. Anxiety is here because jobs are thin and wages and low and I'm not gonna buy a house soon (even though I'm doing better than like 95/100 people I see on the street). PTSD exists for all the folks who have dealt with traumatic, stressful, difficult situations. If you're mentally unwell because things are tough, yeah, that's your brain trying to handle everything. What can you do to survive, what can you do to end the suffering that you see in the news and on the streets?

Hard to know! I'm trying to figure it out, I'm writing a lil website about it.

Stoicism (ie. Aurelius, but many others as well. I learned a lot from the subreddit - though I try to avoid reddit nowadays, I still find the wikis/sidebars very helpful for resources) gave me the tools to deal with my past (ie. trauma), depression, and anxiety.

Stoicism posits that I can only control myself in the current moment, and it posits that you should try your best (do right by yourself, and then do right by everyone else). Don't sweat the small stuff, don't worry about the past, and don't worry too much about the future - just enough to set good goals. Focus on the present, focus on doing the best you can. That's it!

It isn't easy, but it gets easier with time and good practice.

(TODO: add gramscifancam tweet)

Don't get depressed at news that's out of your control (turn it off if it's too much), don't get stressed about what happened in the past. Everyone makes mistakes, has those days, etc, etc. Take time to process trauma and let the past go, so that you can move forward to the best of your ability.

Don't get anxious about the future - like Aurelius said:

Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.

You'll keep trying your best. That's all you can do! Keep at it, we'll get there. Together, maybe?

PS. I also loved Gladiator, growing up. Still do, I think, but it's been a while since the last rewatch. Legendary soundtrack. In the words of Maximus Decimus Meridius, student of Marcus Aurelius, “Fratres! Three weeks from now, I will be harvesting my crops. Imagine where you will be, and it will be so. Hold the line! Stay with me! If you find yourself alone, riding in the green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled. For you are in Elysium, and you're already dead! Brothers, what we do in life... echoes in eternity.”

index tags: Philosophy, Stoicism, Meditations, Marcus Aurelius, Gladiator, Future, Present, Past, Virtue, Good, Depression, Anxiety, Mental Health

category tags: Philosophy