The Daily Stoic - January 12 - Serenity

I am going to do a double post today. I missed the daily Stoic yesterday due to a migraine, so I will post yesterday's meditation first.

The message in this meditation is to remind ourselves throughout the day what is and is not within our control. Once of the points made is letting yourself surrender to sleep when it comes. This is something I struggle with. There have been times within the last year that I have had to force myself to stop forcing myself to keep my eyes open.

The journal question for this meditation is:

Where is the path to serenity?

This is tough to answer because it could be taken in several ways. To me, I find serenity in ASMR videos. I like to stream it while I am in bed trying to get myself to sleep. Any yes, it does help. Some videos are guided meditations. I find that they help bringing calm to an otherwise stressed out brain.

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.

The Daily Stoic - January 10 - Steady Yourself

Today's meditation is about using our proper judgment to filter out the chaos in the world to help us stay steady. I guess the question to reflect on would be "What is proper judgment?"

Reason and "proper" judgment are different for everybody.

The Daily Stoic - January 9 - Control

Today's meditation challenges us to remember that the only control we have is ourselves. We cannot reach out and control everything outside our own being. We can control what we think about things such as our own opinion about a particular topic or event, but we cannot control the outside influences affecting those events such as another person's reaction or direct influence in the event.

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.