The Daily Stoic - January 8 - Addictions

To paraphrase today's meditation, addiction is the lack of freedom (or the inability) to abstain. In the past my addictions were certain foods. For medical reasons, I had to stop indulging in them as frequently as I was. 

At my worst, I was drinking two cans of coke a day; three if it was a Friday and I had a tough week at work. As of the writing of this post, I have not had a sip of soda in over seven months. Another one of my indulgences was chocolate milk. Around the holidays in 2021, I treated myself to some after months of drinking plain 1% milk (with my nutritionist's blessing after the fact). Moderation is the key.

At this moment in time, my physical health is dominating my life as I have neglected to improve the quality of my life for so long. It requires a lot work to make up for the years of indifference and just living with my issues. Due to the aforementioned medical reasons, I have lost 33 pounds since July 2020 and I am only two pounds away from being in the high-normal range for my age and height. 

In a previous post, I wrote about having a goal to avoid becoming directionless. The goal I am currently focusing on is getting my weight to normal range by my next appointment with my primary care provider in July 2022. With today's meditation, I also have to be mindful to not turn it into an obsession and/or addiction down the road even if I meet my goal.

The Daily Stoic - January 7 - Seven Functions of the Mind

Today's meditation is a reminder of what our mind functions should do. 

 

Choice - to do and think right

Refusal - of temptation

Yearning - to be better

Repulsion - of negativity, of bad influences, of what isn't true

Preparation - for what lies ahead or whatever may happen

Purpose - our guiding principle and highest priority

Assent - to be free of deception about what's inside and outside our control (and be ready to accept the latter)

Being able to ignore everything else is a big step in keeping a clear mind.

The Daily Stoic - January 6 - The Four Ws

Today's meditation challenges us to explore the who, what, when, and where of our inner selves. The emphasis on the "Who are you?" question. This is not meant to be in the "Introduce yourself." kind of way. The authors challenge us with not what your answer would be to the questions, but rather, whether you could answer the question. 

In all honesty, I do not think I could give an answer yet. This will be something to reflect on through the year.

The Daily Stoic - January 5 - Finding Direction

Today's meditation is about always having a direction. When I first read today's meditation, my first reaction was having a everything planned ahead of time seems contrary to the principles of Stoicism. I mean, always planning for everything is not necessarily living the life we want to if we learn a certain path is not for us. 

After re-reading the meditation, I realized that was not the message. The message was to have a goal. Period. Having a goal keeps us moving towards something. That does not mean our goal(s) cannot change. Having a goal and working towards something gives a direction or starting point. Working towards our goal gives us the opportunity to gain knowledge, action on that knowledge, and accept that not everything is within our control. There is never a need to feel lost or without direction.

The Daily Stoic - January 4 - "The Big Three"

Control your perceptions.

Direct your actions properly.

Willingly accept what's outside your control.

The authors of The Daily Stoic used this as a summary of what Marcus Aurelius wrote in Meditations, 9.6 as well as the three principals of Stoicism: Perception, Action, Will. 

 

The Stoic logic is circular in nature (or overlapping for lack of better verbiage) when making decisions and for those in the recovering communities. For those of us who are control freaks, this is difficult to wrap our minds around. 

Control your perceptions - And wisdom to know the difference. ➜ God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change

 

What can I control? What is outside of my control? (This is a form of knowledge.)

 

Direct your actions properly - Courage to change the things I can;

 

How should I use my new found knowledge? (Knowledge is freedom after all.)

 

Willingly accept what's outside your control - And wisdom to know the difference. ➜ God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change

 

What can I control? What is outside of my control? Will my actions result in something beyond my control? If it does, accept this fact and move on. There are more important things to direct my attention to than something I cannot control.

 

The biggest challenge I will have this year is controlling perceptions and sorting out what is controllable and what is not on the spot while trying to make decisions (especially at work). 

As stated in previous post, I am new to Stoicism, so I could be way off base with the way I am interpreting these meditations. This is a learning experience for me.

The Daily Stoic - January 3 - Learning to Say "No"

Today's meditation is about learning to say "No." to the things that do not matter. This allows us to claim our lives back and live the way we want to and not the way other people want us to. This is especially useful for those who are always to busy to live life.

While saying "No." can be difficult, so can saying "Yes." The fear of hurting someone is always there. As someone severely introverted (INTJ), the internal conflict of yes or no is a constant battle in my head. This is something I would love to work on. Future goals.

The Daily Stoic - January 2 - Knowledge is Freedom

For the last year and a half, I have been focused on physical health; something I neglected for far too long. For 2022, I will continue to focus on physical health, but I will be incorporating mental health as well.

Typically, I use this blog to post my reviews of books that I have read throughout the year, but this year, I am also going to use it to follow my journey through a book called The Daily Stoic. I did not realize that there was also a daily reflection journal as well, so I may miss some of the reflection points as I did not purchase it. I am new to Stoicism, so I am not at all knowledgeable in the area. It is my hope that this will change as the year passes.

For January 2, the mediation to reflect on is that knowledge is freedom. I found this to be somewhat interesting because all our lives we are told that knowledge is power. So, what is knowledge? Is it power? It is freedom? Is it both?

I spent a little time (maybe an hour or so) with Google and searched for knowledge is power vs knowledge is freedom. Most of the articles I found either went along the lines of “knowledge is power” or “knowledge is power is freedom.” I also found a “blook” by David Gurteen called Conversational Leadership. Apparently a blook is a combination of book and blog; this is the first time I have heard (or read in this case) the term.

The chapter I read (found here) was about knowledge management and it argued that knowledge is not power. The chapter contained a list of things you could do with knowledge. I will not list them all here, but among them was “chose to ignore it” and “not accept it as true.” Most of the items on the list had a common theme and that theme was the ability to chose what to do with that knowledge. This is free will. This is freedom.

Two other items in the list were “not have the political skills to influence or persuade senior management to take you seriously” and “not have the budget or other resources to put the knowledge into action.” These limitations, while not power, are still actionable.

Don’t have the budget? Raise funds.

Don’t have the skills to connect with your superiors or other groups you need to influence? Learn them (more knowledge!). Become effective.

Having knowledge does not grant power; it grants you the freedom to make informed decisions or take action based on that knowledge. Knowledge is freedom. Knowledge is freedom that can lead to power.