Hi all,
Here are the latest Stoic snippets for you to enjoy this Sunday!
Wishing you a great week ahead,
Allan
📌 Stoic Reminder
⌛️ A Short Sunday Reflection
Following on from the theme of the above reminder…
📖 Reading Recommendation
Unclenching the Fist of Anger - This piece by
traces a little-known therapeutic technique from the 1960s—clenching and unclenching the fist—and connects it to ancient Stoic symbolism about impressions, grasping, and letting go.By slowing down our sense of time, loosening our grip on angry thoughts, and turning gestures into philosophy in action, it reveals a surprisingly practical way to meet anger with clarity and control. It’s both modern psychology and ancient wisdom, held in the palm of your hand.
🌷 Integrity Never Needs a Disclaimer
Let Us Be Clear - Why do so many people say “let me be clear” or “to be honest” before making a point? This meditation explores how such phrases can actually signal uncertainty, and why Marcus Aurelius believed genuine integrity never needs a disclaimer. With the help of Stoicism and even a warning from Aesop’s fables, it highlights how honesty should be obvious in how we speak and act. Real clarity, Marcus suggests, is shown—not announced.
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📜 Quote For The Week Ahead
With guilty pleasures, regret remains even after the pleasures are over. They are not substantial, they are not trustworthy; even if they do not harm us, they are fleeting. Cast about rather for some good which will abide. But there can be no such good except as the soul discovers it for itself within itself. Virtue alone affords everlasting and peace-giving joy; even if some obstacle arise, it is but like an intervening cloud, which floats beneath the sun but never prevails against it.
—Seneca, Letters 27.2-3
🎙 Latest Podcast Episode
Why Their Anger Isn’t Your Problem - Through the story of a man desperate to end his brother’s anger and Musonius’s calm endurance in exile, the Stoics remind us that patience and virtue are the only sure defenses against life’s turbulence.
External blows, whether personal slights or imperial banishments, cannot touch the command center within. What matters most is how we shape our own art of living, turning adversity into raw material for strength.
What are the implications of "postponing living"? What if treating the now as a means to a more fruitful end makes me feel better and more "present"? What if embedding myself in "the now" and truly "feeling" all of the shit feelings that sprout from my circumstances bring me down, incur passivity, decrease my lust for life, and generally lead to worse outcomes? Can you be a bit more specific, please? This is one of those things that sounds good to a neurotic teenager who is addicted to the Internet, but it fails to leave a mark on anybody who has a decent philosophical foundation.