The Daily Stoic - January 11 - (Un)Steady Yourself

After a week of working through The Daily Stoic, I found it somewhat difficult to reflect on some of the meditations. I found myself buying The Daily Stoic Journal last week and it was delivered today. I am going to work through both books at the same time. The journal provides a weekly reflection as well as daily reflections. I will begin the weekly reflection on January 15.

 After reading today's meditation, yesterday's message makes more sense. Yesterday's message was:

[S]erenity and stability are results of your choices and judgment, not your environment. 

Today's message is that if you try to run and hide from your problems, you will unsteady yourself and your life. You need to avoid the negative judgments associated with those problems to remain steady.

The question from The Daily Stoic Journal is:

What are sources of unsteadiness in your life?

What an appropriate question for the times. The list could be endless with the craziness of the world today. Just to name a few: work (multiple situations at the same time over a long stretch), a situation at home (which has been resolved), COVID, health issues. These are just a few of the things causing obstacles in my life. 

I typically spend a lot of time reading as an escape or just to wind down and relax. Once COVID came in 2020, I was not reading nearly as much as I usually do. Even now, I am still no where near what I was doing pre-COVID. This is a source of stress for me. I feel somewhat lost and guilty for not reading, but when I do read, I also feel guilty for reading. I cannot pinpoint why I feel guilty, but I do. It has been another source of unsteadiness. Now that other sources of stress (work, etc) are starting to level out and get back on track, I feel like I can read again. I feel the weights starting to lift off every time I make a little progress.

As a final note, I have to say, for those who are going to try out The Daily Stoic, have the journal along with it. It makes the daily reflections easier and far less stressful. Yes, trying to reflect on some of the meditation enigmas was a source of stress. Already today, it has helped a great deal.