“Don’t return to philosophy as a task-master, but as patients seek out relief in the treatment of sore eyes, or a dressing for a burn, or from an ointment. Regarding it this way, you’ll obey reason without putting it on display and rest easy in its care.”
MARCUS AURELIUS
I am introduced to philosophy or specifically Stoicism when I was at quite a low point in my life. Few things were not going well in my life but the majority was still good. But I was so much disheartened by the lows of my life that I failed to see my blessings.
I was the kind of person who used to get very happy with small things and equally sad for smaller things. To some extent still, I am the same but I am slowly learning. I used to think this is the way to live life. But only when I hit the lows for a quite long time I realized that this is not a balanced way of living.
But luckily I got familiarized with the concept of Stoicism and it indeed was a medicine for my soul. Some of the things that I learned from it till now and how it changed my life:
1. Letting go
I finally learned the art of letting go from Stoicism. I understand the things that are not always in your control and once you realize it, it becomes easy to let go. Now I can only focus on my efforts without too much fretting about the results.
2. Avoiding over-optimism
I am the person who used to live in my dream world. I used to build castles in the air and when it breaks I used to get sad. With Stoicism, I learned that our efforts do not always guarantee success and it’s ok. I haven’t become a pessimist but now the failure of my endeavors doesn’t pull me to the lowest level of despair and neither I am on cloud nine for every small success. I have learned to live in a more inert way.
3. Inspired me to live with less
It made me realize that I need very little to be really happy in life and really inspired me to let go of all the clutter around me. With fewer things around me, my surrounding is cleaner and it itself turns as an inspiration.
4. Finding why of things
I was not a person who likes to go deeper to analyze my feelings and emotions because I was always scared of what I will find. Philosophy made me more accepting of myself and now I can see and analyze my actions and emotions. It also helps me picking a correct value system for me rather than one imposed by family or society.
These are just small benefits but they changed my life profoundly in just 30 days. Let me know in comments if philosophy has changed your life in any way too.
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