They lived in disorienting times. They faced change. They faced criticism. Many of them lived under tyrants. They lived through wars and chaos and dysfunction.
So how did the Stoics stay sane through all this? How did Seneca not lose his mind under Nero? How did Marcus Aurelius not become Nero when anointed with the same power?
The answer is, as it is for most things, hard work. The Stoics worked hard to maintain their perspective, to shake off the misinformation and the noise, to find the truth, to maintain control over the greatest empire—themselves. "To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle," Orwell wrote of living through totalitarianism and authoritarianism. But there was a habit that most of the Stoics had that Orwell also recommended. "One thing that helps toward it is to keep a diary, or, at any rate, to keep some kind of record of one's opinions about important events," he wrote. "Otherwise, when some particularly absurd belief is exploded by events, one may simply forget that one ever held it."
In Meditations, we see Marcus Aurelius trying to hold himself accountable on the pages of his journal. In Seneca's letters we see him and Lucilius trying to make sense of the deranged world that they lived in. Every day, tens of thousands of people all over the world use the daily and weekly prompts in The Daily Stoic Journal—or read the daily entry in The Daily Stoic (just $2.99 as an ebook right now!)—to find their bearings and center themselves.
"What am I doing with my soul?" Marcus writes in Meditations. And then he says that he—that you—need to "interrogate yourself, to find out what inhabits your so-called mind and what kind of soul you have now? A child's soul, an adolescent's…a tyrant's soul? The soul of a predator—or its prey?"
Marcus Aurelius was an all-powerful emperor. No one else was interrogating him, no one else was subjecting him to these hard questions. He knew that if he didn't do it, no one would. Well, today no one else is concerned with your soul (it's no one else's business). So if you don't interrogate yourself about it, if you're not examining your own mind, who will? If you're not using the pages of your journal to get to self-awareness, to get to clarity, how will you ever stand a chance of seeing what's in front of your nose?
You have to do this. You have to do it every day.
P.S. To be a practicing Stoic you need a journaling practice. We created The Daily Stoic Journal to help journaling novices and veterans alike develop a journaling practice centered around Stoicism. Each weekly prompt focuses your attention around a core Stoic principle and daily prompts guide your reflection on how to better apply that principle in your life.
Following these exercises for a whole year will result in you discovering the most essential lesson in Stoicism—learning how to turn words into works. In short, The Daily Stoic Journal will help you become the person philosophy tried to make you.
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