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  • This is a film about Stoicism and why you need more of it in your life - because, as

  • people seldom tell you, but we will, quietly...

  • Stoicism was a philosophy that flourished for 480 years in Ancient Greece and Rome,

  • and was popular with everyone from slaves to the aristocracy: because - unlike so much

  • philosophy, it was helpful, helpful when we panic, want to give up, despair and rage at existence.

  • We still honour this philosophy whenever we think of someone as brave and - without perhaps

  • quite knowing why - call themstoic

  • There are two great philosophers of Stoicism. The first is the Roman writer and tutor to

  • Nero, Seneca. He lived between AD 4 and AD 65

  • That's right, 'tutor to Nero'. The infamous dictator who slept with his own mother, raped

  • young boys and, just because he felt like it, asked his old tutor - Seneca - to commit

  • suicide in front of his own family. And our other guide to Stoicism is

  • the kind and magnanimous Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius [AD 121 to 180], who was forced to

  • spend most of his reign on the edges of the Empire, fighting off invincible Germanic hordes,

  • but found time to write one of the greatest works of philosophy, the Meditations

  • in his tent at night.

  • There are two problems stoicism can help us with in particular.

  • The first is Anxiety.

  • When you're feeling anxious about something, most people are maddening. They believe it

  • is their duty to 'cheer you up'. However intelligent they might otherwise be, they say things like:

  • IT'LL BE OK, DON'T WORRY

  • even CHEER UP

  • The stoics were appalled. They hated any kind of consolation that aims to give the listener

  • HOPE.

  • Hope is the opium of the emotions and must be stamped out conclusively for a person to

  • stand any chance of inner peace.

  • Because hope only lifts one higher for the eventual fall.

  • The Stoics advised us to take a different path. To be calm, one has to tell oneself

  • something very dark: It will be terrible!

  • I might have to go to prison. The lump really could be malign.

  • I probably will be fired and humiliated. My friends almost certainly will succeed.

  • BUT, a huge consoling Stoic BUT, one must keep in mind that one will, nevertheless,

  • be OK.

  • OK because in the end, as Marcus Aurelius said: 'We are each of us stronger than we think'

  • Prison won't be fun, nor will losing one's job

  • or being made a laughing stock... but one will get through it. Stoicism emboldens

  • us against the worst fate can throw at us.

  • And if you really really can't take it, suicide is always an option.

  • The Stoics mentioned this repeatedly.

  • Here is Seneca: 'Can you no longer see a road to freedom?

  • It's right in front of you. You need only turn over your wrists'.

  • To build up an impression of one's own resilience, the Stoics suggested one regularly rehearse

  • worst-case scenarios.

  • For example, twice a year, one should take off one's smart clothes, get into some dirty rags,

  • sleep on a rug in the kitchen floor and eat only stale bread and rainwater from

  • an animal's bowl - and thereby make an amazing discovery.

  • As Marcus Aurelius put it: ALMOST NOTHING MATERIAL IS NEEDED FOR A HAPPY LIFE

  • FOR HE WHO HAS UNDERSTOOD EXISTENCE

  • Another subject of interest to the Stoics was ANGER

  • Romans were a bad tempered lot.

  • The Stoics wanted to calm them down but they did so by an unusual route: by intellectual argument.

  • They proposed that getting angry isn't something you do by nature, because

  • you have a Latin temper or are somehow inherently hot blooded.

  • It's the result of being stupid, of having the wrong ideas about life.

  • Anger stems when misplaced hope smashes into unforeseen reality. We don’t shout every

  • time something bad happens to us, only when it is bad and UNEXPECTED

  • For example, you'd never shout just because it started raining - even though rain can

  • be horrible, because you've learnt to expect rain.

  • The same should apply to everything. Don't only expect rain, expect betrayal, infamy,

  • sadism, theft, humiliation, lust, greed, spite...

  • One will stop being so angry when one learns the true facts of the misery of life.

  • The wise person should aim to reach a state where simply nothing could suddenly disturb their peace of mind.

  • Every tragedy should already be priced in.

  • We're going to leave you with the most beautiful remark that Seneca made just as Nero's guards

  • were grabbing him and shoving him to a bathroom where he was meant to take a sharp knife and kill himself.

  • His wife Paulina and two children were panicking, weeping, clinging to his cloaks.

  • But he turned to them, pulled a weary smile at them, and simply said:

  • WHAT NEED IS THERE TO WEEP OVER PARTS OF LIFE? THE WHOLE OF IT CALLS FOR TEARS.

  • We have much to learn from the Stoics.

This is a film about Stoicism and why you need more of it in your life - because, as

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