What is Your Philosophy?

I have been reading a lot of The Stoics lately and really enjoy it. It has given me some interesting perspective for sure.

What is stoicism? Here is a simple definition:

“Stoicism is an ancient Greek philosophy (developed by Zeno of Citium around 300 B.C. as a refinement of Cynicism) which teaches the development of self-control and fortitude as a means of overcoming destructive emotions.”

Read that last part. The development of self-control and fortitude as a means of overcoming destructive emotions. I feel like we could use that right now more than ever. 

This is really only a fraction of what Stoicism is all about but enough for our purposes here.

At its core it’s about living a good and virtuous life while not letting our emotions rule over us. Think about it for one second: how often do you let your emotions rule you and you make a bad decision?

Let’s apply this to your health.

You have a bad day at the office (home office today☺) and you are scheduled to workout but your emotions get the best of you and you say to yourself “I need a glass of wine” which we all know is NEVER one. A bottle later, no workout and the next day you feel like crap.

If you were in control of those emotions you would know that you most likely have no control over what happened. The reality is it will not impact your life one bit but it took you off your health and wellness path. It set you back from hitting those goals.

Imagine the opposite where you are in control and are able to ignore those emotions as you know they have little to no consequences and instead you work out and feel great.

Is this easy? No. Does it take practice? Yes.

Is it worth it? Hell yes.