🔋 A Simple Stoic Afternoon Meditation
Recharge for the rest of the day.
Hi all,
The idea behind this meditation is to offer a brief period of respite in the middle of your day to reset and recharge.
It will hopefully give you the opportunity to reflect on what has happened up until that point and prepare for what’s to come.
Breaks like this can be beneficial for refocusing and protecting ourselves from the overwhelm that can ensue over the course of a busy day.
Best regards,
Allan
Meditation Audio
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Meditation Text
Good afternoon.
Let’s use this short break to step back from everything that’s going on, to check in with ourselves, and to prepare for the rest of our day.
Your morning may or may not have gone to plan.
You might have been relentless in your productivity, or you might not have looked at your to-do list at all.
You might have received good news, bad news, or no news. Your day might seem an ongoing dream or an inescapable disaster.
However it’s going, now is a good time to get some perspective.
You may be resistant to even taking these few minutes to reflect, you may have tasks you feel can’t wait, but remember the Stoic philosopher Seneca’s words from his On Tranquility of Mind essay:
The mind must be given relaxation — it will rise improved and sharper after a good break. Just as rich fields must not be forced — for they will quickly lose their fertility if never given a break — so constant work on the anvil will fracture the force of the mind. But it regains its powers if it is set free and relaxed for a while. Constant work gives rise to a certain kind of dullness and feebleness in the rational soul.
Say this to yourself: “My mind will rise improved and sharper after this essential break.”
You may be feeling the burden of some persistent worries or problems that presented themselves this morning.
This is the perfect time to process them.
Whatever our worries or problems are, whatever mental storm we feel we are in the eye of, we must remember that it isn’t people, events, or other externals that worry us, but our judgements about those things.
When we accept this, our next step becomes clear: To examine those judgements.
Only then can we see how accurate they are. Only then can we see reality for what it truly is. Only then can we put our mind at rest.
Say this to yourself: “My worries are logically the result of judgements I’m making in my head. Outside my head, those judgements don’t exist.”
This logic alone, of course, is not enough to dispel worry, so let’s keep going, let’s examine.
Our examination will serve a simple purpose: To remove any exaggerations or empty emotional seductions that our judgements have cloaked themselves with.
As the Swiss neuropathologist Paul Dubois writes in his book Self-Control and How to Secure It:
“One exaggerates, imagines, anticipates affliction,” wrote Seneca. For a long time, I have told my discouraged patients and have repeated to myself, “Do not let us build a second story to our sorrow by being sorry for our sorrow.”
Take a moment to bring to mind whatever is worrying you.
Be as specific as you can.
Until you get specific, until you banish the vagueness of worry, the fingers of your mind will keep reaching out but never quite touch what is worrying you.
It is much easier to solve a specific problem than a vague one, and easier still to solve a problem that is stated as objectively and clearly as possible.
For each worry you come up with, describe it to yourself in the most plain, unemotional language possible. You can even say it out loud to create some cognitive distance from it.
Viewed (or heard) in this way, it should seem a lot less catastrophic.
For example:
This:
I’ve been given a really difficult new project at work that is way beyond my level of ability. I’ll never understand it and when people see me fail they’ll realise I’m not good enough for this job.
Becomes:
I have a new project at work. I will determine what I need to do first and get started. Regardless of the difficulty, I can only do my best.
Say this to yourself: “Logic is my tonic for what seems catastrophic.”
To complete our midday meditation, let’s think about the attitude we will take into the rest of our day. Let’s think about how we recharge our spirit to prepare for what we may yet have to face.
You can focus on those uncontrollable things that don’t go your way, get disheartened, and ruin a perfectly nice day, or you can focus on what you do control and choose to accept, even love, what Fate hands you.
You can choose to greet difficulties as a challenge and welcome them enthusiastically.
You can choose to see adversity as a test of your character that will ultimately make you stronger.
You can choose to be grateful for it all, and you can choose to take joy in the small, simple things that most people take for granted.
You can choose, as Kurt Vonnegut urged, to notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, “If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.”
You can choose.
Say this to yourself: “My attitude and intentions are my choice. They are within my control.”
May your mind benefit from this break and rise rejuvenated to guide you through the rest of your day.
Good afternoon.
