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Ignore at your own peril...

Think about what you experienced back in March 2020. The markets were crashing. Businesses were shutting down. Everything was in flux. Over the next several months, depending on your profession and your location, this uncertainty continued to roil. Maybe you lost your job. Maybe you never got to go back to your favorite bar before it closed for good. Maybe you never got to say goodbye to your great-aunt.

These tragic events were a reminder of something the Stoics speak to us about constantly, something we often refuse to hear: We possess nothing in this life. Everything is ephemeral. Nothing is truly certain.

It’s hard for many of us to internalize that message, because most of the time the world is pretty calm. Most of the time we can make predictions and be confident about the expected outcome. We can work towards things. We can count on things. We can take for granted that the people and places and things we care about will be there tomorrow when we wake up.

But this constancy is an illusion. The ownership we feel over things—whether it’s our car or our place in the pecking order—is not real. Fate, as Seneca says, behaves as she pleases. Oftentimes reminding us, in the process, who is really in charge. She reminds us that our stock market portfolio is not really “worth” anything, it is a series of snapshots that have no bearing on what the picture will be tomorrow...or ten minutes from now. Nothing can be taken for granted—not relationships, not the status quo, not even the home we “own.”

The last couple years have reminded you of this, it has illustrated the teachings of the Stoics in a vivid and undeniable way. Refuse to learn from it at great cost. Ignore it at your peril. The Daily Stoic.

COMMENTS

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Ayuna
00:08 Apr 12 2022

So true.

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Most illness begins with a negative mind.

It’s been proven again and again. Hypochondriacs, people who are convinced that they are sick even though nothing is wrong with them, experience the exact symptoms of the actual illness. For them, the illness is just as real as if their bodies were ravaged by disease. It is also possible to make yourself ill through constant worry and fear of failure, because the mind constantly strives to turn into reality the things we think about most. Protect your mental health with the same care you give your physical body. Just as your body requires healthy, nourishing foods, and a balanced diet, so does your mind. Make sure you feed it plenty of positive thoughts. The Daily Stoic