What is it about our lack of knowledge on a subject that hits us so hard? Why do we get so defensive when we’re exposed as not knowing? “What, you mean you didn’t know that?” “I did! I did know that, I just forgot!” “Yeah, sure you did…” It wasn’t embarrassing before another human brought…
We humans have fallen mindlessly into the habit of overcomplicating things. And by things I mean pretty much everything. We invent value where there would otherwise be none, we apply imaginary judgements that make us anxious, we rarely see what’s in front of us simply for what it is. Anthony de Mello has a nice…
The Everyday Stoic is a popular account sharing Stoicism content across several social media platforms. In a short time it has built up a following of over 100,000 on Instagram and 380,000 on YouTube. It was great to be able to interview the man behind the account, William Mulligan, recently to find out a bit…
For a while I have been considering what’s next for What Is Stoicism? I started the blog and most of the associated social media channels just over four years ago and have loved creating Stoic content and interacting with fellow Stoics. Although I discovered Stoicism a while before I created the blog, What Is Stoicism?…
The Stoics loved learning from their role models. Often they never met the people they admired. In many cases, they weren’t even alive at the same time. It was the founder of Stoicism, Zeno, who was given the advice that those after him would follow so closely: “To live the best life,” he was told,…
What is it that gets you started in the morning? What propels you from the warm familiarity of the bed into the cold uncertainty of the world every single day? I’m not talking about needing that first cup of coffee before you can fire up your faculties. I’m not talking about the motivation to get…
The following is a guest post kindly submitted by Enda Harte. You can find Enda online here: @theirishstoic on Instagram@theirishstoic on TwitterThe Irish Stoic on MediumEnda’s website Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.Epictetus We’re taking a journey back to Ancient Rome to borrow a…
The older I get, the less I seem to enjoy receiving material gifts. Maybe it’s a sign of that increasing age, maybe it’s a sign of becoming more Stoic, or maybe it’s just a tendency towards minimalism. It isn’t that I’m not grateful, but more that I prefer smaller, more meaningful gifts to costly clutter.…
What is the ideal life? What way should you live? Do you want to have a life you can describe as happy? Complete? Fulfilled? Do you follow on from what came before you or do you forge a new path? Start a family or not? Put down roots or travel endlessly? Focus on acquiring or…
Are you doing? If you aren’t doing, what are you? In the absence of an action, you might say you’re simply being. Well, not even that. Because you can't be without doing. Doing is Being. There's a poem by Ray Bradbury that takes that very title. Again: Doing is Being. “To not do is to…