I’m in a house in the country and the garden backs onto a farmer’s field. I’m looking out the back window. Early in the morning. Early enough that well-rested people are still in bed. The sheep in the field are clean winter white but the grass is Springtime green, dewy due to the cold AM…
Daily life can be busy. And it can be worrying. And exciting, anxious, and a whole host of other things that distract us from focusing on ourselves and the present moment. We read about Stoicism and get excited about adopting a philosophy of life, something to guide us in our decisions and make us feel…
We've all experienced the feeling of occupation that makes the passage of an hour, or a longer period of time, a mere nothing. You get lost. You’re swept along oblivious with each tick of the clock. Something traps your focus until you’re left asking where the day went. There can be good reasons for this…
Marcus Aurelius's Meditations is a collection of private notes the Roman Emperor wrote to himself for his own guidance and self-improvement. Written almost two thousand years ago, it remains one of the key texts on Stoic philosophy. Meditations consists of twelve books, covering different periods of Marcus's life. Book one begins as follows: 'From my…
Brittany Polat is an author of two books, a blogger at Apparent Stoic, and a contributor to the Modern Stoicism site. She has a keen interest in the application of the Stoic principles in modern life, and has even used them as part of a yoga practice as you can see in the video below:…
I don’t often confirm a "good day" unless a number of good things have happened. There needs to be a clear and heavy imbalance in favour of things going right, categorical and undisputed, before any contentment can ensue. I woke up early, I completed my work to-do list, I exercised, I read a chapter of…
When you first get a puppy and you’ve owned it for a couple of days, your prevailing thought might be "what have I done?" Before you got her you watched just about every dog training video on YouTube, you read endless articles about what to feed her and how much mental and physical activity she…
Do you ever get a feeling of emptiness after spending hours binge-watching a TV show? I do, it can feel like eating junk food - enjoyable at the time but with no lasting benefit or satisfaction. Binge-watching is what Robert Greene would call "dead time": While people wait for the right moment, there are two…
From an early age, largely thanks to advertising, we’re told it’s normal to be on a satisfaction treadmill. We feel dissatisfied when we develop desires that are unfulfilled. We strive to fulfil these desires in the hope of satisfaction. Before long, the fulfilled desire becomes the new normal and is taken for granted. Then the…
Simon Drew is an alignment coach, a musician, and a trail runner, but if you have an interest in Stoicism you'll know him best as the host of the excellent Practical Stoic podcast. You can find Simon at https://www.simonjedrew.com/ and The Practical Stoic at https://practicalstoicpodcast.podbean.com/ It was great to be able interview Simon recently, and…