Well looks like the new sections of the site are the dumpster fire I thought they'd be. And this too shall pass.
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What’s on your mind?
- Thread starter Gutwrench
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On my mind of late as I learn about Stoicism, is this,
“Don’t be overheard complaining…Not even to yourself.” as written by Marcus Aurelius
Long before I knew of Stoicism, I had been training myself to not complain outwardly so much. To a large degree I have been successful. Now the more difficult part is not complaining to myself, inwardly!
That will take some time, but I have confidence that I can make it happen and I'll be better for it too.
“Don’t be overheard complaining…Not even to yourself.” as written by Marcus Aurelius
Long before I knew of Stoicism, I had been training myself to not complain outwardly so much. To a large degree I have been successful. Now the more difficult part is not complaining to myself, inwardly!
That will take some time, but I have confidence that I can make it happen and I'll be better for it too.
Well, you're kind of preaching to the choir. I have been a follower of Digital Minimalism (and the "embrace boredom" concept) for quite a while now, and I plan to virtually stop checking the news on a daily basis quite soon.
You might be interested in this pre-social media era book:
Obviously, Postman really owes a lot to McLuhan
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Yep, this is really linked to the idea that your thoughts shape what you are ("The Happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts."). I do agree with you, it's one of the most difficult things, but Stoicism also teaches that the Inner Citadel must be protected from both outside forces and inner turmoil.
Well, you're kind of preaching to the choir. I have been a follower of Digital Minimalism (and the "embrace boredom" concept) for quite a while now, and I plan to virtually stop checking the news on a daily basis quite soon.
You might be interested in this pre-social media era book:
Obviously, Postman really owes a lot to McLuhan
[automerge]1593006233[/automerge]
Yep, this is really linked to the idea that your thoughts shape what you are ("The Happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts."). I do agree with you, it's one of the most difficult things, but Stoicism also teaches that the Inner Citadel must be protected from both outside forces and inner turmoil.
I've come to think that the secret to a happier life is in just actively living more of it. Means doing the next real thing, mostly, and not chasing down that elusive "am I happy yet?"
Maybe that's just crowding out the complaints with attention-needing action sometimes, but I'd rather be sewing the next fourteen patches of a quilt block together in half-decent fashion... and then be "unsewing" three of them in the next ten minutes --while continuing to listen to Mozart-- than spend those ten minutes carping out loud about how no one makes a decent seam ripper. I admit, however, that I still manage to multitask in the complaints department for awhile every day now and then.
I agree with you. I am also finding myself in "real life" more and more, and if there's one thing that highlighted the importance of the small things in life that's Covid. Talking to people, I see increased interest in leaving the full-immersion digital lifestyle behind (although there's some fear in doing it).
I would also add the happiness of your life depends on the circumstances of your life.Well, you're kind of preaching to the choir. I have been a follower of Digital Minimalism (and the "embrace boredom" concept) for quite a while now, and I plan to virtually stop checking the news on a daily basis quite soon.
You might be interested in this pre-social media era book:
Obviously, Postman really owes a lot to McLuhan
[automerge]1593006233[/automerge]
Yep, this is really linked to the idea that your thoughts shape what you are ("The Happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts."). I do agree with you, it's one of the most difficult things, but Stoicism also teaches that the Inner Citadel must be protected from both outside forces and inner turmoil.
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We all have our moanie days!
Even though I'm hours away, my blinds were rocking from the 6.0 that just hit California.
Hope everyone is ok
Edit: Downgraded to a 5.8.
Southern California Earthquake Data Center at Caltech
scedc.caltech.edu
Hope everyone is ok
Edit: Downgraded to a 5.8.
Well, both you and Tokyo will get the BIG ones at some point. Enjoy every day and every sandwich...Even though I'm hours away, my blinds were rocking from the 6.0 that just hit California.
Southern California Earthquake Data Center at Caltech
scedc.caltech.edu
Hope everyone is ok
Edit: Downgraded to a 5.8.
Even though I'm hours away, my blinds were rocking from the 6.0 that just hit California.
Southern California Earthquake Data Center at Caltech
scedc.caltech.edu
Hope everyone is ok
Edit: Downgraded to a 5.8.
Likewise; hope everyone is fine, and safe and sound.
A few years ago, in central Asia, I had an experience (during an earthquake) in my office, where the floor wobbled, while my chair, where I was seated, rocked a little, and the water in a glass on my desk, lapped like a tide.
Several years earlier, when I was deployed in the Caucasus, in Georgia, I slept through an earthquake, but, in fairness, I was nowhere near the epicentre.
A colleague who was in a field office much closer to the epicentre had awakened to a room where the walls appeared to move. Not knowing, initially, that there had been an earthquake, he told me about it, later, and his lugubrious German accent was wonderful, as he recounted this tale. ""Oh, Hannes," I said to myself, "you have been drinking too much again.""
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The Montreal / Ottawa area is an earthquake zone so I experienced a few growing up but nothing too severe.
My experience tells me different.
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Never been near one. I’m happy for it to stay that way.Even though I'm hours away, my blinds were rocking from the 6.0 that just hit California.
Southern California Earthquake Data Center at Caltech
scedc.caltech.edu
Hope everyone is ok
Edit: Downgraded to a 5.8.
Well, each one lives according to some sort of philosophy. If your experience tells you different, so be it, I am certainly not going to be the one that will claim that other people are wrong.
However, when I feel in a certain mood, I always fall back on Viktor Frankl's writings; if a guy that suffered for years in nazi concentration camps - and lost everything, family included - could find meaning and moments of happiness while living the experience, I know that I - as a human - can be stronger than I think I am especially considering that my personal circumstances are nothing compared to what he lived through.
Don't get me wrong. There are people who come through horrendous adversity in life and always find something to lift their spirits. I do try that approach, but I do generally find it is not always possible. Sometimes our experience (well one particular experience in my case), always shapes the way we live our lives. Some wounds never heal.
I would never dare say otherwise, and I do keep you in my heart as you went through something that I wouldn't want for my worst enemy. I still remember when you posted about it on the forum, and for some reason I sometimes find myself thinking of (and praying for) you, even if we've never met.
That's also why I pointed out that I didn't mean happiness as in the modern sense of joviality, joy, or similar but to a different and slightly nuanced interpretation of the word.
Well, you're kind of preaching to the choir. I have been a follower of Digital Minimalism (and the "embrace boredom" concept) for quite a while now, and I plan to virtually stop checking the news on a daily basis quite soon.
You might be interested in this pre-social media era book:
Obviously, Postman really owes a lot to McLuhan
[automerge]1593006233[/automerge]
Yep, this is really linked to the idea that your thoughts shape what you are ("The Happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts."). I do agree with you, it's one of the most difficult things, but Stoicism also teaches that the Inner Citadel must be protected from both outside forces and inner turmoil.
thanks will look it up in audiobook form. I hope its not one of those books that basically restating the obvious and common sense.
McLuhan's book is probably 40 years old, but I think that the generic message is still relevant. McLuhan was also a genius. Postman is more modern but from what I remember his book is quite good. Many authors picked up from their work.
Well, you're kind of preaching to the choir. I have been a follower of Digital Minimalism (and the "embrace boredom" concept) for quite a while now, and I plan to virtually stop checking the news on a daily basis quite soon.
You might be interested in this pre-social media era book:
Obviously, Postman really owes a lot to McLuhan
[automerge]1593006233[/automerge]
Yep, this is really linked to the idea that your thoughts shape what you are ("The Happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts."). I do agree with you, it's one of the most difficult things, but Stoicism also teaches that the Inner Citadel must be protected from both outside forces and inner turmoil.
I think that there is considerable merit in this.
(And my mother was reading Marshall McLuhan in the 1960s).
Anytime when what used to be referred to as "normal life" was suspended for a while - such as over the Christmas break, when many people, during those dog days between Christmas and the New Year, had time to think, to brood, to ponder life, to mull over stuff, take stock of their lives, and ask questions of themselves, such as what they actually want from their lives - such self-examinations and personal, private, reappraisals are made.
Thus, some people realised - when they had time to stop and think - that they absolutely loathed their job, and just could not face the thought of ever again having to return to it. And, in turn, that meant, - and it is not just anecdotal, but I have always found it fascinating to contemplate the (considerable) numbers of people who have handed in their notice on their first day on returning to work after the Christmas break in January.
So, taking stock of one's life, and asking questions of technology, the online revolution, and of the digital world, and how you can make room for it in your life without allowing it to dominate or exert excessive control seems to me to be entirely sensible (and inevitable) in the current Covid circumstances.
Fascinating.
These days, I see "happiness" more as a form of acceptance, of becoming comfortable with yourself and with your relationship with your world, personal and professional, and psychological, and having navigated to a place where this has become possible.
Ah, Viktor Frankl; bless my mother.
He was on her shelves as well, and we were encouraged to read his work.
Very well said.
Yes, I remember my mother discussing McLuhan with us; at the time, she was studying for her degree at night, and we were at school, and she eagerly explored such topics at the dinner table, and expected us, as pre-teens, and later, as teenagers, to want to contribute, as well, to these discussions, and encouraged us to read her books (Frankl, McLuhan among many others).
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Isn't that also the time of year that suicides are at their highest? Possibly for some of the same reasons. And also due to the immense expectations that Christmas should live up to some sort of standard!
Personally I loathe that time of year. One I shall try my best to avoid.
The Little Book arrived today. I have three books staring at me...feast or famine.
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I am of the thought that we dont have a lot of control over the hand we are dealt in life, but we have complete control over how we play it.
It seems this is the crux of living life well.
A simple concept but often not easy to practice, in my experience.