The Daily Stoic - You Must Practice This Ritual This Year | Suspend Your Opinions

Episode Date: February 6, 2023

Marcus Aurelius was a busy man. He was a smart and able and talented man. So why did he need to spend so many precious hours in his tent, writing by the lamplight, practicing philosophy in his journals? It wasn’t for our benefit. No, he never expected Meditations would see an audience. He was writing for himself, to himself, trying to get better by himself. He was journaling as a means of self-improvement as much as he was of self-expression.In today's Daily Stoic Journal reading, Ryan discusses how we can better ourselves by choosing to reserve our opinions.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more, including the Premium Leather Edition of the Daily Stoic.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoke Podcast early and add free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wondery's podcast business wars. And in our new season, Walmart must fight off target. The new discounter that's both savvy and fashion forward. Listen to business wars on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. on music or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast. Each day we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stoics, illustrated with stories

from history, current events, and literature to help you be better at what you do. And at the beginning of the week we try to do a deeper dive, setting a kind of Stoic intention for the week, something to meditate on, something to think on, something to leave you with, to journal about whatever it is you happen to be doing. So let's get into it. You must practice this ritual this year. Marcus Aurelius was a busy man. He was a smart, enable and talented man.

So why did he need to spend so many precious hours in his tent riding by the lamp light practicing philosophy in his journals? It wasn't for our benefit. No, we never expected meditations would see an audience. He was writing for himself, to himself, trying to get better by himself. He was journaling as a means of self improvement as much as he was a self-expression. As Tim Ferriss has said of his own daily journaling habit,

I don't journal to be productive. I don't do it to find great ideas or to put down pros I can later publish. The pages aren't intended for anyone but me, he says. I'm trying to figure things out. I'm just caging my monkey mind on paper so that I can get on with my fucking day. It's now been a little over five years since we first published the Daily Stoke Journal. Our attempt to create a modern, accessible, and beautiful medium through which to practice stoicism.

Epictetus said that every day we should keep our philosophical aphorisms and exercises at hand so that we could write them, read them aloud, talk to ourselves, and others about them. And that was the idea behind the journal. One stoic prompt for each day to be journaled about, meditated on in the morning in the evening, and thousands and thousands and thousands of people have done that for the last 365 days. And it's been awesome to hear what they've gotten out of the process. Because a journal is a place to clarify your thoughts, to find peace and quiet, to call the negative energy swirling around in your head, to cope with stresses and struggles.

It's your loyal companion, it's your sounding board. It's your guide. But whatever form or style of journaling you practice, the point is that you keep practicing. And if you haven't been, well, now is the time to start. Whether you need help ridding yourself of bad habits like complaining or procrastination or a hot temper, or you're looking to get stronger, why isn't it in braver? The pages of a journal are the perfect place to do that. You'll find your rhythm and what works best for you, but only if you start refine as you go. But start. That's my journal. It sounds a little different because it's got this

cool leather cover on it that we just rolled out. It's made of ethically sourced full grain leather from a tannery in Red Wing, Minnesota, just celebrated their 150th anniversary. It says on the front, make time, it's got courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom. And it's got epictetus is quote on the back that when we just talked about every day and night keep thoughts like these at hand,

write them, read them, allow, talk to yourself, and others about them. I've cycled through five journals now from the Daily Stoke. It's my fifth year doing it. I don't read the Daily Stoke every day. I feel like that'd be weird. But the journal is a prompt.

It's blank space. And I fill that in each day. I'm thinking about the ideas just as EpicT2Said. But I do the journal, and then the journal goes away. I like the idea of having some continuity, a slip cover that goes on there. This one's cool, it's got a spot to hold the pen, it's got a, we design these little pockets on there

to put some note cards and some other stuff. It sits on my bedside table, it's awesome. I think it's gonna hold up really great. It's designed exclusively to fit the US edition in the Daily Stuck, but we also checked it, it fits the UK edition. You can check it out. And if you want to get the US edition in the Daily Stoke, but we also checked it fits the UK edition. You can check it out. And if you want to get the journal and the cover as a package deal, you can do that at

store.dailystoke.com. I'll link to it in today's show notes. This is a great year to start a journaling habit or to pick that journaling habit back up. Check out the new Daily Stoke Journal Weather Cover. I think you're really going to like it. Suspend your opinions. Epic teetists would teach that opinions were the cause of a troubled mind.

Opinions about the way we think things should be, or need to be. One of the stoic words for opinion is dogma, and the practice of stoicism begins with a relentless attempt to suspend this dogmatic way of living, a cessation of the belief that you can force your opinions and expectations onto the world. We have the power to hold no opinion about a thing and not let it upset our state of mind for things have no natural power to shape our judgments. It's Marcus Realis in meditations. Today, I escaped from the crush of circumstances or better put, I threw them out for the crush wasn't from outside me, but in my own assumptions.

It's Marcus Realis in meditations. There are two things that must be rooted out in human beings, arrogant opinion and mistrust. Errogant opinion expects that there is nothing further needed and mistrust. Errogate opinion expects that there is nothing further needed and mistrust assumes, under the torrent of circumstances, there can be no happiness. That's epictetus's discourses.

Throw out your conceded opinions for it as impossible for a person to begin to learn that which he thinks he already knows from epictetus. This idea of having no opinion is man. It's so powerful. Epictetus also talks about, can you be content to be seen as glueless or stupid about some things? I mean, but I don't think ignorance is admirable But I do think that we often sort of track in real time a whole bunch of information. We don't need We have too many thoughts or judgments about other people's personal lives

Life is better when you have fewer opinions because it then it just is you have fewer We have too many thoughts or judgments about other people's personal lives. Life is better when you have fewer opinions because then it just is. You have fewer expectations so you're not disappointed. You also don't take things for granted. And so I think for the Stilx is about getting to kind of a zen-like place where you just see things as they are. And you don't need them to be different, you don't need them to be otherwise. You didn't expect them to be this way or that way.

You just went with the flow of it. I think this is obviously what social media is designed to make us not do, right? Facebook says, what's on your mind? What do you think it about? What's going on in your life? Twitter says the same thing, Snapchat and Instagram say, take a video, they share it, let other people know.

Give your thoughts, react to this. Do you ever feel that much better doing that or does it just create new problems for you? Now, did anyone like it? Do people agree? Why is this idiot responding in the comments? Why aren't people understanding? Why aren't they appreciating blah, blah, blah, blah?

You know, you have the power to have no opinion. That's such a beautiful, freeing idea from Marcus Aurelis. And look, he's not saying don't have an opinion about injustice, don't be involved cynically. Of course, that's not what the Stokes think. Their whole lives are a testament to the contrary. But I guess they're just saying it's like, look, if somebody you know is having an affair, that can eat you up inside a can bother you.

Why are they doing this? Why do people do this? You know, be disappointed in your human, you know, your fellow humans. And it's like, it's none of your business, man. It's not up to you. You're not doing it. You know why you're not doing it. So let them, let them do them.

They will face the consequences for that. You don't need to get involved. As Mark said, leave other people's mistakes to their makers. You got enough to focus on with you. You got enough that's in your control that you're not focusing on. And so going through life in a dogmatic way, trying to project and force your opinions on other people is a miserable way to live. It's also a tyrannical way to live. And so we've got to practice this sort of, I don't want to call it detachment, but it's looking inward instead of outward.

And I think that creates a happier life, that creates a better flowing life. It also gives people the freedom to make their mistakes, to learn their own lessons, to do their own things. Something, you know, I'm learning about with my kids as well, I was like, look, I've got to let them, I can't do this all the stuff for them, I've got to, I've got to, you do you, man. And I'm here if you need me. And I think that's a good way to live.

And so let's focus on having fewer opinions today. Let's focus on the things that are up to us. Let's leave the things that are not up to us to the other people, to the makers, to the people they are up to. And I think that'll all help us get along. It's certainly be happier and certainly have more tranquility. So just have no opinion. Move on.

I don't have an opinion about your opinion, and that's exactly how it should be. All right, have a good week, everyone. Hey, prime members. You can listen to the Daily Stoic early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts. Celebrity feuds are high stakes. You never know if you're just going to end up on Page Six or Du Moir or in court.

I'm Matt Bellesai. And I'm Sydney Battle, and we're the host of Wonder E's new podcast, Dis and Tell, where each episode we unpack a different iconic celebrity feud. From the build-up, why it happened, and the repercussions. What does our obsession with these feuds say about us? The first season is packed with some pretty messy pop culture drama, but none is drawn out in personal as Britney and Jamie Lynn Spears. When Britney's fans form the free Britney movement dedicated to fraying her from the infamous conservatorship, Jamie Lynn's lack of public support

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