Day 1 of Stoicism.

Stocisims' ultimate goal

Stocism came from the discourses of ancient text such as the Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Seneca's letters, Epictetus handbook and others. Stoic took the name from philosophy which means the "love of wisdom ".

Stoics believe that living in "agreement with nature" is the ultimate goal. Living a life wisely and virtuously is basically the way to go and they would always perceive that virtue is above all else or "arete" the excellence of character. The cardinal virtues such as wisdom, justice, courage and moderation from Socrates was exercised by these Stoics.

Justice: the social aspect in our lives which contains our relationship with our family, and friends.

Courage and moderation: mastering our fears and overcoming our unhealthy "passions" or vices.

Wisdom: Being able to differentiating good from bad and everything else as indifferent or neutral.

The stoics also touched on the external things. There are things called preferred and dispreffered . We should be able to decide that some external things may have value to us such as wealth, reputation, health, objects, which could help us find opportunities and may well be beneficial to life however this should not be a hindrance to us in staying virtuous. These physical things or external things may have some value but we should not hold on to these and put it above our own virtue.

Ruling the mind

The first step of training in Stoicism according to Epictetus is called "Discipline of Desire".

We must conquer and limit our desire. According to the book the term: Apatheia(Greek: ἀπάθεια; from a- "without" and pathos "suffering" or "passion"), in Stoicism, refers to a state of mind in which one is not disturbed by the passions.

It is important to realize that the virtue of temperance is born from the desires that we renounce, that in which we use courage to endure fear.

How to Speak like a Roman Emperor

Stoicisms' mode of communication is being plain, simple and objective. In contrast, Catastrophizing by using hyperbole or exaggeration adds to our worries and making a problem more of problem. For example: When we lost a job we tend to ask God why punish me? Or whenever you have a bad day and you curse the world for being so mean solely on you. The stoics remind us that by sticking to only facts can help us reduce anxiety. Phantasia kataleptike is the term used by the stoics to viewing things objectively, and separating value judgments from the actual fact.

In cognitive therapy, they would ask their patient to think of the worst-case scenario to showcase them how much they are affected by external events. Catastrophe is then used not as a noun but as a verb since usually people perceive that one external event is bad and try to exaggerate this. If we were to decastrophize this we are able to perceive or see this bad event in a different way. Aaron T. Beck used decatastrophizing scripts in his therapy sessions to help them see that not all external events are bad and can be more seen in an objective sense. Like the example earlier: saying I lost my job and now I'll find a new one is way better than I lost my job and the world is about to end.

Being able to separate feelings or our value judgments from actual events help us get through them and think of the next logical step and asking ourselves what's next?

Epictetus and his quote which was repeated a thousand times and is relevant to this discussion is : It is not things that upset us, but our judgement about those things.

The term "katharsis" meaning purification of the mind from external things .

One way of practicing this is by writing down the description of any plain saddening event. Make sure to be descriptive and detailed about it. Make sure you do this in a philosophical point of view. Write how you could exercise strength of your character and how to cope with this. Ask if yourself what your own idol or a person you admire would do in this situation. Treat this as if it were an opportunity to build up your own character and to callous your mind.

An example :

Describe the situation: Personally, since I Vinnie Vinculado am currently shifting to a different course right now. I am from College of Human Kinetics shifting to either Speech Communication, Broadcast Communication or Sports Science. I tried shifting last year but did not make it past the interview.

How to cope: I should be able to remain calm and confident despite the failure that happen the last time. I have more time to prepare and be prepared during the application period. The person I aspire Marcus Aurelius would calmly research about the course he'd want to shift, study it and know what he wants for himself and be as honest and truthful as possible during any point of the application period. Getting past this obstacle would surely boost my confidence up. Whatever happens happens. As long as you prepared and have no regrets during preparation everything will go to plan.

More tips:

Distancing refers to the ability to view one's own thoughts or beliefs as constructions of reality rather than reality itself.

Distancing can help us notice in a third pov about how we feel about something making us more cautious and logical in decisions or feelings that we make. Devoid from any strong emotion can help us see and understand ourselves more in how we act and decide or even feel about ourselves or about something.

The book has a handful of techniques used even in modern CBT such as:

Writing down thoughts concisely when they occur and viewing them on paper.

Writing them on a whiteboard and looking at them "over there" - literally from a distance and much more from the book

Referring to them in third person such as Vinnie is thinking as if your studying someone else's thoughts and beliefs

Page 6 of 14 under chapter 2 "How to Speak Wisely"