Sometime around the tail end of 2019, I stumbled on a philosophy, which is quite unlike other philosophies I have come across in Jurisprudence. I was so intrigued by the practicability of the philosophy and its potential to have such a positive effect on the lives of men and women if applied efficiently.
At that point in my life I was emotionally damaged, and I needed some sort of direction, the philosophy of Stoicism, became the compass I needed to direct me to “Eudaimonia”.
Stoicism is a very ancient and rare philosophy, its origin can be traced as far back as 301 BC. This philosophy was founded by Zeno of Citum, one of the students of the great philosopher Aristotle. From the former slave Epicetus, to a rich Seneca, to one of the most powerful men in the world, Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Zeno’s philosophy of life has had an unprecedented effect on people from different walks of life.
I am not going to give you a lecture on Stoicism, but I am going to sell this philosophy to you. I am going to tell you why it will benefit you to go out of your way to explore this philosophy.
EUDAIMONIA
If you will recall, I mentioned the word above without really given an explanation. Eudaimonia is an ancient Greek word for happiness. So let’s start off from here;
“Are you really happy?”
I am not talking about happiness in respect to comfort, as in material wealth. I am referring to Optimum Happiness in context of life satisfaction, the feeling of being one with the person inside you. The next question is;
“Do you want Optimum Happiness?”
If your answer is yes, then you definitely need to explore Stoicism.
Stoicism promises a supremely happy life i.e. Eudaimonia and also prepares us to deal effectively
with whatever life throws at us.
“How do Stoics manage to achieve Eudaimonia?”
Stoics believe that the sole way to achieve Eudaimonia is through Arete. Arete is a greek term used to describe the fulfilment of our purpose, our virtue. A person’s virtue depends on their excellence as a human being, on how well they have performed in achieving their natural potential. Let’s use a caterpillar as a case-study. The natural potential of a caterpillar is to grow into a butterfly. If it doesn’t achieve this then it can’t be said to have achieved it’s virtue. Hence, we owe it to ourselves to achieve our potentials, or we may never achieve Eudaimonia.
“The Stoic way of dealing with whatever life throws at us”
Before I stumbled across Stoicism, whenever I was confronted and I knew I was in the wrong, I would become uncontrollably afraid, anxious, breathing for air, and struggling to find a way out of the situation. Stoicism gave me a weird form of tranquillity and equanimity. I used the word weird because it is a very strange level of calmness, that you can’t comprehend until you actually experience it.
Stoicism teaches us to only worry about what is within our control and try to make the best out of what is not within our control. This minimises emotional suffering as we are inadvertently taming negative emotions like anxiety, depression, grief etc.
At this point, I will assume you are sold and you are actually interested in exploring Stoicism. I have provided a number of resources that may help you in achieving Eudaimonia.
⁃The little Book of Stoicism Timeless Wisdom to Gain Resilience, Confidence, and Calmness By Shuham Charles. https://www.academia.edu/38784655/THE_LITTLE_BOOK_OF_STOICISM_Timeless_Wisdom_to_Gain_Resilience_Confidence_and_Calmness
⁃STOIC Therapy Toolkit Donald J Robertson. https://donaldrobertson.name/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/stoic-toolkit.pdf
⁃Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
⁃Practical letters from a Stoic Master by Seneca the younger https://fhww.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/taoofseneca_vol1-1.pdf
Memento Mori
picture by Frank Mckenna, @frankiefoto, unsplash.com
Mindsmash 