Discover Stoicism
Here's a quick introduction to an incredible way of thinking. Stoicism was popular in the Greek and Roman worlds and it can still help us today. This video delivers a simple story to introduce it.
If you don’t have audio, or prefer reading, I’ve included a transcript below:
I'd like to encourage you to discover Stoicism. It was a way of thinking in the Greek and Roman worlds that I find very helpful. It was kind of forgotten in history, but it's coming back now in a big way. The best way I've heard it described is ‘kind of like Mr Spock from Star Trek’.
Very logical, very reasoned. It's all about taking the world as it is. Whenever I introduce it to people, I like to give them this example that I think can be helpful. So imagine I'm having a barbecue this weekend. All my friends are coming around and we're looking forward to it.
It's going to be great. We're going to be outside, I’ve got some activities and I've got a big Jenga set. We're going to have an amazing time.
But on the day there's a problem. Before it happens, I look up and there’s a big black rain cloud heading my way. It's not going to happen. Now, there are two ways I can respond or react to this.
I can react to that cloud. I can get mad, I can get angry and I can shout at it. I can beat myself up, think about how lucky I am and how horrible this is, but it's not going to stop it raining. The cloud is still going to come over. I'm still going to get wet. You see where I'm going with this?
What I'm doing really is hurting myself. In many ways I have to accept what's happening. How many people are fighting battles that are over? That are lost?
I always like to remind people that acceptance is very different from agreement. I'm not asking you to be happy that the cloud is coming over. Just accept it, because that can lead us to a different way of thinking. One that accepts it and looks at what we have under our control, what we can do.
So, when it comes to the barbecue, I need to call everybody up. I might need to postpone it or I can look at when it's likely to be okay and put it off to another day. I can also go down this road a little bit further.
What are my other options? Hey, I can bring everything indoors and if I can't cook, maybe I can get pizza. Maybe we can do karaoke. You see, I'm exploring the options that I can control. Practical steps.
This is just a very basic introduction to how this stoic thinking can help us. If you want to explore this further, there's a book I'd like to recommend. It's called Happy by Derren Brown. That's the Derren Brown for TV and it's a great book.
So, I'll leave it to you now to go off and discover Stoicism. I really think it's going to help. Thank you.