Sophie Amundsen, the 14 year-old protagonist of the renowned book, Sophie’s World, by Jostein Gaarder, introduced us to seemingly simple questions such as ‘Who are you,’ and ‘Where did you come from,’ yet at the very core left us all wondering the very nature of our existence and how, as living individuals, we all can commune in this world. This being so, it brought us to consider the essential virtues needed to survive in this otherwise infinite, boundless reality yet constricting and challenging space that we live in. Our teachers, parents and school professors alike, religious leaders too, told us to practice resiliency, be kind to one another, let go of the past, live the present and do not fear the future, acknowledge your faults, make do with your enemies. Integrate it with proper education and we are good to go. However, some, if not most, find it difficult to live or at least be at peace with living. Some live, most just merely exist.
This being so, many self-help books emerged in the market. One of which is Ryan Holiday’s and Stephen Hanselman’s ‘The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Meditations and the Art of Living.’ As the title of the book would suggest, it gives readers daily affirmations by quoting some of the teachings of well-known stoics, such as Zeno of Citium; Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emporor; Seneca, the wealthy playwright; Epictetus, a slave and a moralist. A well-written and relatable explanation on how to apply each teaching follows. It is basically a practical guide on how to live your best life.
So what exactly is stoicism or stoic philosophy that, in modern times, its principles stand as pillars in the treatment of depression, alcohol, sexual and drug abuse, anxiety, sleeping disorders and similar psychological problems? It even serves as a foundation for cognitive behavorial therapy or commonly known as ‘CBT’, a technique used to treat said mental illnesses. It can be presumed that this type of therapy teaches the subject to reprogram the way he thinks so that he can have a different perception of things, thereby having a different response to stimuli altogether. Stoicism, on a general tone, is such. We think to be able to live. We do not simply breathe to survive, but we need to adapt to the circumstances around us, be it social, political, religious. In other words, there is some form of logic that exists in this universe that differentiates us, human beings, from other living things. We are given the capacity to distinguish good from bad, reason out to stand our guard and to understand political and moral concepts. We are given the logic to commune harmoniously. However, often times, we regret to achieve this goal. Life, as simple as it should be, becomes too complicated. As the end of a busy day, all we look for is the meaning of our existence and how to happily live. Stoicism then teaches us to live by virtues, to have a different mindset, to see things from a new light, to accept things as it is, to commune with nature and other creation, to teach our mind on how to respond positively, feigning negativity. The stoics went through a lot of discussions, practices and discourses that led to established theories and principles of which psychiatrists, psychologists, life coaches, individuals and scholars alike, appreciate and use over time. This book deep-dives into how such theories were developed, and how the philosophy of stoics is an important school of thought up to this day.