It was offensive. It was stupid. It was unexpected. It didn't need to go this way. It's not something you're going to accept.
And what should you do about it? How about nothing?
At least at first.
You see, that's what successful and happy people do. They don't get riled up easily. They have command of themselves and their emotions. A rude remark, a costly error, an outrageous decision, a profound injustice—it's not that they don't care about these things, they do. It's that they don't react immediately to them.
Athenodorus, the Stoic advisor to the young Octavian, famously advised his charge—and the future emperor (Augustus)—to count all the letters of the alphabet before reacting to things that made him angry. This is essential advice. Because it's only fools who fly off the handle, it's the immature who say the first thought that pops into their head, it's the irresponsible who act without thinking.
The wise pause and reflect. They consider their options. They take the best path forward.
The Stoics employed a range of techniques to move past their anger. And over the past year, Daily Stoic has been designing a little device to help you apply those techniques to your daily life to help you tame your temper once and for all.
Wrapping around the front of the coin are the words Pausa et Reflecte, Latin for pause and reflect—which is the first thing you should do when anger strikes. Next, we should take a look at ourselves in the mirror, Seneca says, since rage distorts your features beyond recognition and seeing your reflection like this is a sobering enough sight that it can immediately diffuse your temper.
That's why we designed the center of the coin with a shiny, reflective surface to function as your personal mirror wherever you go. As Seneca noted, "whoever comes to a mirror to change himself has already changed."
On the back is an abbreviated quotation from Seneca reminding us that delay is always the remedy to anger. Surrounding this quote are the letters of the alphabet—a reference to Athenodorus's advice to the young Octavian that when anger strikes, not to "say or do anything until you've repeated the 24 letters of the alphabet."
Why 24 letters? Because Athenodorus was invoking the ancient Greek alphabet, which did not contain the letters F or Q. You'll find the Anger Medallion omits both as a nod to the tradition's roots.
Handcrafted in the United States from high-quality metal by a custom mint operating in Minnesota since 1882, the Daily Stoic Anger Medallion is designed to be both durable and meaningful. Each medallion also comes shipped in a custom-designed box with an information card that explains the practice to anyone receiving the coin.
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