Stoic Teachings by Epictetus

Day 282 / 365

“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”- Epictetus

One of the greatest things I have learned this year through this daily writing challenge is the philosophy of Stoicism. Taught by Greek philosophers over 2000 years ago, these Stoic teaching still hold true today, now more than ever. I have written about half a dozen blogs about these, but I still keep going back to it every now and then.

Today I looked into some Stoic teachings by Epictetus, who was born a slave but went on to become one of the greatest Stoic philosophers. Here are some of his teachings

Examine your impressions

The external world is not objective. Whatever happens to you, it’s always in your control how you would react to it. Whenever you are dealing with a situation, ask yourself — “Is it under my control?”. If the answer is yes, then exercise your control and change the situation. Otherwise, just let it go.

Learn to Other-ize

We are always great at giving advice to our friends when something bad happens to them. But when the same things happen to us, we ignore all that advice.

We should examine a problem from this perspective — what if this happened to someone else? How would I expect them to deal with it?

Remember, the universe is not out to get you. Bad things happen to everyone.

Speak less and speak well

It was Epictetus that came up with this gem -

“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”

Let silence be your goal. Don’t gossip yourself, and don’t indulge when other’s do it. Don’t be judgmental in your tone, you don’t know the intentions behind someone else actions.

When you do speak, discuss ideas not people.

This post is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Yesterday’s blog — Everything’s Awesome and no one’s happy