☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: It's Not A Joyless Philosophy

Maximizing the experience of life.

1. Morning Contemplation

🎧 You can find the audio version of this morning’s contemplation below.

Good morning.

There’s a suspicion that seems to stick around that Stoicism is a joyless philosophy.

It’s often misrepresented as a way of life that aims to suppress our true emotions so that we exist in some state of flatness. By eradicating feelings, the argument seems to suggest, we would take on a statuesque demeanour. Never too high, never too low: flat.

This is wrong and needs to be dealt with directly. Delight is encouraged. And its source is known: acting consistently in accord with virtue.

For a fuller understanding of this side of Stoicism, we can look at how Donald Robertson addresses it in his book How to Think Like a Roman Emperor.

Joy can be derived from the three core relationships that Stoic ethics encompasses: ourselves, other people, and the world as a whole.

Robertson sets out the Stoic emperor Marcus Aurelius’s treatment of these three relationships as follows:

1. Contemplating virtue in yourself Marcus Aurelius writes in his Meditations that the most important source of “joy” for a Stoic comes from letting go of attachment to external things and focusing on living wisely, particularly by exercising virtue (justice) in our relations with others.

2. Contemplating virtue in others Marcus also tells himself that when he wants to gladden his heart, he should meditate on the good qualities of those close to him, such as energy, modesty, or generosity.

3. Welcoming your fate Marcus also tells himself that rather than desiring things that are absent, as many do, he should reflect on the pleasant aspects of things he already has before him and contemplate how he would miss them if they were not there.

These are practical steps that can be taken to experience Stoic joy. It’s against our nature to try to suppress healthy feelings that maximize the experience of life.

It’s no coincidence that the Greek word for joy (chara) is closely related to the word for gratitude (charis). I, for one, am grateful for the guidance of Stoicism in locating simple and fulfilling sources of joy.

2. Morning Meditation