Saturday Night Social: Stoicism
Part of my morning routine includes reading Ryan Holiday's The Daily Stoic. It has daily mediations based upon Stoic philosophy. Before getting this book, I decided to research a little more. I listened to a few podcasts about Stoicism. I read some articles from writers about how Stoicism impacted their lives. It seems like a good way to view and interact with world so I figured I would try to incorporate it into my daily life. I originally checked about Meditations by Marcus Aurelius from the library but going through it, I didn't think I would get a lot of benefits from it. I think it's a book I need to purchase so I could go back and reference it. In one of the articles I read, the author suggested Holiday's daily readings. I figured that would better fit my life.
So each morning after I do my morning pages and gratitude journal, I do my reading. I am consistent with it and I have been doing it for the past month. As I continue with these readings, I am starting to see problems with Stoicism.
As I understand Stoicism, I find that emotions don't have a place in it. It seems that there is a need to control emotions and push them down in this philosophy. I believe there are situations where you can feel emotions and to be in the the emotions. I think there is a time and place for emotions. I don't think we should remain in an extreme emotional state all the time but emotions are what make us human.
The more mediations I do, I find myself asking questions.
If you don't feel angry or enraged about things, would things ever change? Like feeling angry about the injustice in the world. If you just stay even keel, would you take action to make changes? Would you stand up and say something?
Does Stoicism not like feminine values? Expressing emotions does not seem to be aligned with Stoicism and emotions are considered feminine. Granted this philosophy comes from Ancient Greek times so women were not involved with it. I do notice that it is men peddling this philosophy.
Even though I am starting to have issues with Stoicism, I still think I can apply some aspects. I don't need to worry about what other people do. I can choose how I react to people or situations. I think there are some things I will take and use but I don't think I will be saying how great it is.