In letters from a stoic 33, Seneca talks about studying maxims. Maxims are short statements to describe truth or general conduct. As we all know the wise old man likes to end his letters with a maxim mostly from Epicurus. Seneca said that a maxim should not be taken only for itself. A maxim speaks a general truth and anyone who wants to adopt a maxim should understand the bigger…
In letters from a stoic 32, Seneca talks about avoiding the crowd which he also talked about in letter 7. He has been warning Lucilius about associating with people whose goals and ideals are different than his. “This is sound practice—to refrain from associating with men of different stamp and different aims. “ He said that these people may hinder his progress towards self-…
The Stoics are widely known for journaling. The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote his personal reflections regularly to what we would know now as the Meditations. Seneca, a Stoic widely for his letters sent to Lucilius, seemed to do his journaling at night. “When the light has been removed and my wife has fallen silent, aware of this habit that’s now mine, I examine my entire day and go back…
It is okay to have bad days. We all have at some point feel like we don't have the motivation to do daunting tasks ahead of us. There so many factors to our body’s conditioning that although we have prepared ourselves the night before we still feel like we have less energy for the day's work. What works sometimes is to watch motivational videos. Here are some of the…
Memento Mori, a Latin phrase which means “Remember You Must Die”, is a popular practice among ancient stoics to remind themselves of their mortality. This might sound unusual after hearing it for the first time and for some sounds scary but actually it can make one be more appreciative of the present. Seneca, a popular stoic philosopher, said that one of his friends has a daily ritual by sitting aside a coffin with some wine…