Memento Vivere

"A phrase has no meaning, if it is not acted upon. Just a bunch of words put together, with no power or motivation. You can rhyme a quote about every thing but can you say it with conviction that you ever acted on the words that you say. You claim to live life with a unique perspective, but can you be sure that your thoughts are not poisoned by the society's bias. What lies have you told yourself today to make yourself believe that you are one of the good bunch. Last but not the least, Are you living or just merely breathing?" ~ screamed the Soul. "I shall speak my truth now or shall remain silenced for the rest of my life. I don't intend to be perfect, nor do I strive for it. I am a creature of mistakes and wrong doings but aren't we all, is there anyone who hasn't hurt someone's feelings or did something which was wrong in the eyes of society. Hence I will not succumb to these words of yours. I did everything in my power to change myself and I am still trying each day. No, I am not one of the good bunch. I am one of the flawed and for the rest of my existence, I shall remain one of the flawed. If I acted on every word that was said, then I would never survive because these phrases are beautiful but the world is full of misery and pain. The actions taken on these phrases hold no meaning in this world. I have spoken my truth." ~spoke Reality "But, Are you living or just merely breathing" ~ Asked the Soul "At dawn, I remind myself to live. At dusk, I remind myself to breath." ~ spoke Reality An utter silence followed this exchange till the next dawn. Till we exist, our soul shall ask reality every dawn, "Are you living or just merely breathing ?" Living is a mystery which only the enlightened have solved. I am not one of them but I have learnt something from them which I would love to share with you. Stoic tenets for Living : Practice Misfortune If you’re always comfortable you’ll fear that comfort will be taken away.

Turn the Obstacle Upside Down: If someone is unkind toward you, practice patience and understanding. If someone you love dies, practice fortitude.

All is Ephemeral: Remember our passions are ephemeral and our achievements are trivial.

The View from Above: Remember how small you are in the big scheme of things.

Meditate on Your Mortality: You could leave life today. Let that guide what you do and say.

Differentiate Between What You Can and Cannot Control: No amount of rage will change the weather or the traffic. But you can reject anger and rage.

Keep a Journal: Remind yourself and reflect upon what you’ve learned each day.

Practice Negative Visualization: If we prepare for the worst our inner peace will more likely remain when we encounter setbacks.

Love of Fate: Happiness isn’t getting what you want but wanting what you get. Treat all you encounter as something to be embraced. Don’t Suppress Emotions, Control Them: To begin let me clear up the misconception that Stoicism advocates suppressing emotions. We instinctively react to situations with emotion but the Stoics teach us to reflect on the extent an emotion or passion is appropriate or justified. For example, we may quickly feel in love or angry with someone. But, after reflection, we may decide not to cultivate such feelings. In other words, we may (or may not) conclude that these feelings are appropriate.

For the Stoics, emotions or passions are ‘things which one undergoes’ and are to be contrasted with things one does. The Stoics aren’t arguing for apathy, but rather that you resist being subject to your passions—manipulated or moved by them. Instead, you should actively and positively control your reactions to things as they occur or will soon occur. Passions that particularly manipulate us are appetites and fear.

To reiterate, the Stoics don’t think that we should excise normal impulses or desires, only our excessive and irrational passions. These passionate emotions have a kind of momentum which subverts your reason. If, for instance, you are consumed with lust or greed you might act in ways that you would otherwise deem imprudent.

So the goal of the Stoic is to prevent the passions and emotions from controlling us and upset our peace of mind and equanimity. And this requires that we practice virtues such as wisdom, courage, justice, and moderation.

Control What You Can, Ignore What You Can’t Control, and Do Your Best:

Stoics made a sharp (perhaps too sharp) distinction between things that are under our control and things that lay outside of it. The first category includes our own thoughts and attitudes, while the second one includes pretty much everything else. (For a funny rendition of this distinction, see this short bit by comedian Michael Connell.) The idea is that peace of mind comes from focusing on what we can control, rather than wasting emotional energy on what we cannot control.

However, this doesn’t imply that we neglect human affairs; remember, many prominent Stoics were politicians, generals, or emperors who tried to influence the world for the better while recognizing they couldn’t control the outcome of their efforts. And they accepted that things didn’t go their way.

Love for All:

Indeed, Stoics thought of their philosophy as a philosophy of love, and they actively cultivated a concern not just for themselves and their family and friends, but for humanity at large, and even for nature itself. They were interested in improving humanity’s welfare.

Virtue is Happiness:

The Stoics recognized that, among other things, we: (i) behave in order to advance our interests and goals (health, wealth, etc.); (ii) identify with other people’s interests; (iii) try to navigate the vicissitudes of life. These propensities are related to the four cardinal virtues of courage temperance, justice, and practical wisdom. Temperance and courage are required to pursue our goals, justice is a natural extension of our concern for an ever-increasing circle of people, and practical wisdom is what best allows us to deal with whatever happens. The most important good in life is a virtuous character.

Living needs to be happy and purposeful. I hope these tenets help you to live a purposeful and happy life. I thought a lot regarding how should I end this conversation and I would like to depart with two phrases which I sincerely believe in, "The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts" ~ Marcus Aurelius "It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live." ~ Marcus Aurelius Remember to live !