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Mansi Ahuja

In the pursuit of self-mastery and wisdom — Stoicism


Do you often feel helpless, irked and want to handle your next frustrating situation as cool as cucumber ?

Well fear not, help is at hand to make you smile serenely. I introduce you to the ancient philosophy of Stoicism, which can calm your inner self and help you live the good life.


For those of us who live our lives in the real world, there is one branch of philosophy created just for us: Stoicism. It’s a philosophy designed to make us more resilient, happier, more virtuous and more wise–and as a result, better people, better parents and better professionals.

Founder of Stoic Philosophy


Stoicism is a school of ancient philosophy of life founded around 300BC by a man called Zeno of Citium (located in Cyprus). He was a former merchant who was lucky enough to have lost everything he had in a shipwreck before becoming a student of the Cynic school of philosophy.


This philosophy is one of practicality, and focuses on the question: How can we find a path to happiness (which the stoics called eudaimonia)?

It was a philosophy for the everyday men and women of the world, not just for educated aristocrats or isolated philosophers in their halls of books, and sages up their mountains.

For the Stoics, their practical path to eudaimonia (happiness) is grounded in a following core principles:

  1. The ability to view ourselves, the world, and it’s people objectively and accept their nature as it is.

  2. The discipline to prevent ourselves from being controlled by the desire for pleasure or the fear of pain and suffering

  3. Making the distinction between what is within our power to influence, and what is not. Using this information we act on what can be acted upon, and we dismiss what can’t.


A Handful of Stoic Philosophers


Marcus Aurelius was one of the most influential human beings in human history. He was the head of the Roman Empire for two decades, at a time when it was one of the largest and most influential civilizations the world had ever seen.

He wrote nightly in his journal about his struggles to live as a restrained, wise and virtuous human being. He wrote them for himself entirely, later his writings were uncovered, collected, and published under the title Meditations. The collection is now recognized as one of the most influential Stoic texts. 

“Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.” — Marcus Aurelius


Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a statesman, a dramatist, and a writer, which gave him real charisma and a way with words. He had a particularly simple, entertaining and memorable way of explaining Stoicism, which has placed his writings among the very best ways for beginners to engage with the philosophy. Also, Seneca’s thoughts resonate with modern audiences, due to his unusually practical considerations of topics like friendship, mortality, altruism and the proper use of time.


“We are often more frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.” — Seneca


Epictetus, a former slave, improved his station in life to become one of Stoicism’s most analytical thinkers. Epictetus’ handbook, The Enchiridion, is an especially practical look at how to implement the Stoic philosophy in one’s life. He had a particular talent for explaining how Stoic strategies improve one’s quality of life and made a compelling case for why one might want to make Stoicism their primary operating system. Many of his teachings have become recognizable, without being known as his. For instance, one of his principles is at the basis of the: serenity prayer: “God grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.”


“If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill— of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, ‘He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone.” — Epictetus

So why was Stoic philosophy so popular amongst such a wide range of people? In just two words— It Works!


There was a time when war, famine, exile, death, disease and many more external threats were far more common than they are now. The potential for suffering was huge, specifically suffering caused by external events. And these are exactly the situations in which Stoic philosophy thrives. The Stoics teach that we are not disturbed by events, only how we respond to them. They also teach that there is very little inside our control; merely our thoughts, beliefs, perceptions and actions. That’s all. So the answer to ’Why Stoicism’ can be summed up as:


· Firstly, it instructs us to take responsibility for how we view things, because this is the true cause of suffering. Rather than just blaming the world or other people for our shitty situation or our crappy mood, we are empowered to accept that it’s us who create our happiness. No one else.

· Secondly, it draws a line between what we do and do not have control over. Many people suffer because we get upset about, or try and control the things in life that we have no control over. And, of course, this leads us to feel helpless, ineffective, powerless, bitter, resentful. We suffer.


However, when we focus on what we can control, we start to become effective, efficient, we solve problems more easily, we suffer less. The key is to accept that there is very little within our control, and focus of effort is that small patch of land that we own; our thoughts, our actions, our perspective and our beliefs.
















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3 Comments


Nidhi Bhati
Nidhi Bhati
Aug 18, 2020

wonderful mam...u write so nicely! Mansi mam I've heard about u alot..u are scholar girl but I wish I can meet u some day..You are also stoic yes 😊

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Robin singh
Robin singh
Aug 07, 2020

well written..it tries to tell us about the acceptance of pain and sufferings of human being with calmness....

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Ashish Shukla
Ashish Shukla
Aug 06, 2020

The article gives ghe critical reasoning of self assessment👍

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