On Meeting Suffering Without Losing Agency
November 14: Seneca on how to suffer.
On today’s daily Stoic Practice, Seneca asks you to notice the extra burden created by dwelling on past or current suffering and predicting the worst so that you respond to reality without making every fear a fact that ever makes you miserable.
That’s part of what we do in our Stoic Community, dear . Because the best way to learn and get the most out of Stoicism is through practice. Seneca emphasizes that, “words must become works.” I’d love for you to join me and other paid readers for a few minutes of practice each day in the Stoicism Together Club. It’s included with your membership.
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My books:
The Tools — Ambition asks a great deal of your mind and body. I wrote The Tools to help you meet those demands. It covers how dopamine shapes motivation, how to structure your day for deep work, and how to use exercise, nutrition, sleep, and Stoic practice to sustain your energy when the work gets hard.
The Best of Marcus Aurelius — I’ve read Meditations more than a hundred times. What’s in this book are the passages I keep coming back to, arranged around 11 themes so you can find Marcus when you need him most. Open it when someone has tested your patience, when pain becomes too much, or when you’ve been so busy getting through the day that you’ve missed what was beautiful about it.
You can buy either book on its own. Both are included with an annual or lifetime membership to The Stoic Manual.
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