“Cling tooth and nail to the following rule: Not to give in to adversity, never to trust prosperity, and always to take full note of fortune’s habit of behaving just as she pleases, treating her as if she were actually going to do everything it is in her power to do. Whatever you have been expecting for some time comes as less of a shock.” (Seneca, Letters from a Stoic)

One way (of several) to do the “Premeditatio Malorum”, the “premeditation of evils”, is to start your day with a walk through your calendar. Consider what you will do, where you will go, and who you will meet. Imagine how it might go wrong.

Now, think about how it will feel. How it will look to others. How you might be embarrassed, or angered, or disappointed. Just this part of the exercise has its benefits. It deadens the pain of the actual event, if it actually happens, through a sort of emotional-hardening process. It even extends to other, unrelated events - If you can endure sorrow better in this instance, you can endure it elsewhere.

Now consider how you might respond to this misfortune. How you might lessen the damage, soften the blow. Use this as an opportunity to do a little contingency planning. If the presentation goes poorly, is there another resource you can appeal to? Can you repurpose the meeting advantageously? Can you lay the groundwork for a second attempt?

Extend your definition of “misfortune” to include diversions and temptations that might challenge your values. Determine ahead of time how you will handle the free doughnuts in the break room. That cute married lady who flirts with you. That guy who is always making fun of your co-workers.

Finally, consider how you will handle the undesired emotions. How will you maintain the space you need to form a reasoned response? Just thinking about it lessens the shock. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses, what else are you going to have to do?

Now you can start the day knowing that you can still be surprised, but you can’t be shaken.

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If you are interested in learning more about Practical Stoicism, you can visit the parent post here.

The Pythagoreans bid us in the morning look to the heavens that we may be reminded of those bodies that continually do the same things and in the same manner perform their work, and also be reminded of their purity and nudity. For there is no veil over a star. (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations XI.27)

Every once in the while, find the time to get out of bed before sunrise and drag yourself to where you can see it. It doesn’t take that long and it’s a magnificent sight. Think of your place in the universe. Consider that, whatever you’ve done before, here is one more chance to get it right.

There are no guarantees you’ll see another one. Use this opportunity wisely. ___

If you are interested in learning more about Practical Stoicism, you can visit the parent post here.

At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: 'I have to go to work—as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for—the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?'

...But it’s nicer here…

So you were born to feel ‘nice’? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands? (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations V.1)

Like almost everything else in life, more than enough sleep is too much. Studies show that sleeping more than an average of 7-8 hours a day can lead to diabetes, obesity, headaches, back pain, and heart disease. What's worse, and more immediate, is that any hour spent sleeping beyond what your body actually needs to recuperate or repair itself is an hour you have lost forever.

An hour lost to sleep will not be available to you for meditation. That hour cannot be used to make you stronger and more resilient. It cannot be used to make the world a better place. In that hour, you will not test yourself and grow. You will do no great deeds in that hour. You will not even remember it happened. It is simply buried, eternally, beneath the sands of time. An irreplaceable treasure lost to the ages.

Better to take back the hour and use it as your nature demands. You've rested enough. Time now to take a deep breath and get on with living your life.

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If you are interested in learning more about Practical Stoicism, you can visit the parent post here.

Way back at the dawn of time (like 8 years ago), I discovered Stoicism and cobbled together some notes on how to make it work for me in my own life. I then shared it with an online community I was then part of, and they helped me refine it into something more useful to normal humans. Over time, I cleaned it up, filled it out, and eventually turned it into an actual book.

Now, I am part of a new online community. This one. And, with the goal of priming the conversational pump here, the mods and I have agreed to revisit that book, Practical Stoicism, and re-post it, chapter by chapter, over the coming weeks.

Practical Stoicism is a collection of short essays, written to help bridge the gap between the classic teachings of the great Stoic philosophers and the things we must do, in the here and now, to achieve the fulfillment they promised. Each chapter stands alone and centers around an action you can take to bring Stoicism into your life, immediately. The chapter titles each contain a verb to reinforce the fact that these aren't mere concepts you consider, but are instead things you do. It is my most sincere hope that you find these postings useful. ___ Current Version: 2.4.1 (1/31/2023) <-- Keep an eye on this Change Log Download the ePub or PDF version for free Buy the Kindle\Mobi version or the Paperback from Amazon. Audible (audio-book) versions [US][UK] ...or just wait for it all to show up here.

Practical Stoicism is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. That's, like, super free. ___ Chapters

• Get Up
• Catch a Sunrise
• Prepare for Battle ...more to come