Stoic At Heart, Be Careful, Do Your Thing, and Should You Listen To Me?

Stoic At Heart

I was advocating principles of stoicism in previous posts without realizing it.  

In previous posts I stated that being upset over events beyond one's control generates loosh.  On this post I stated:

"There are problems that I cannot solve no matter what I do.  I realize that these problems are not my fault because I've done everything I could to fix them.  I won't be a loosh battery from problems that are beyond my control.  At this point, they are no longer my problems - I let them go."

There are a few more of my blog posts like this with different ways of saying it.  I recall one that talks about how there can only be loosh generation and disempowerment from being upset about abusive events in the world while not being able to do anything to stop these abusive events.  I can't find this post, but I know I wrote it somewhere.

"The Little Book of Stoicism" by Jonas Salzgeber states the exact same principle:

"Handing power to things we have no direct control over causes emotional suffering."

I also have a post (I looked for a while but can't find it - I have over 900 posts) making comparisons of stating objective facts vs. stating negative subjective interpretations of objective facts.  "The Little Book of Stoicism" does the exact same thing:

"Duh, I’m so clumsy.  Vs.  The glass is broken. 

This is the worst day of my life!  Vs.  There’s dog poop on my shoe sole.  It smells.  

Argh, such a jerk!  I hate this guy.  Vs.  He erected the middle finger in my direction."

Aspects of stoicism from Eckhart Tolle and Transurfing also appealed to me.

If You Want To Learn About Stoicism, Be Careful Not To Be Misinformed

There are scammers out there who distort the teachings of stoicism.  Be wary of those who try to turn stoicism into a marketing campaign.  There's nothing wrong with making money, but these marketers distort the original teachings.  Some have tried to corrupt the teachings of stoicism with various agendas. 

"The Little Book of Stoicism" does not promote modern corrupted teachings of stoicism.  (It can be useful to hybridize teachings from the past, but this hybridization needs to not be destructive.)  This book, unlike certain other books, is true to the original positive intentions of stoicism. 

Even "The Little Book of Stoicism" doesn't completely cover stoicism though, as has been mentioned in the comments/replies on this Reddit post.  To go even further, "The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius" and "The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manuel" can be read, which I plan on reading.  There are also of course the original works of the stoics themselves.  "The Little Book of Stoicism" is an excellent book for getting started though. 

(My intuition told me that some people are getting annoyed by me suggesting to read all these different books.  (My bad.)  I really enjoy reading books, especially out in nature.  When I muster the discipline to do this, it's quite liberating!  I also of course apply what I read to real life.  I don't feel that it's a waste of time at all.) 

One of the misconceptions about stoicism is that stoicism is unfeeling.  Stoicism is more a matter of using common sense and reason to make decisions if destructive emotions and feelings arise.  In the case with nondestructive emotions and feelings, this can come from the soul, and should be allowed to flow freely.  Suppression of various emotions and feelings hinders healing and growth.

Do Your Thing

It's not selfish at all to do your own thing.  Some may tell you it's selfish, but this is because they want you to do their thing.  Only when I stopped doing someone else's thing and did my own thing did I start to make real positive changes in my life.

By doing what works for you and finding your own path, this is embracing your own positive inner power, which makes the world a better place.

Sure, the perspectives of others can be considered.  It's beneficial to get input from others to gain a wider perspective.  However, it's detrimental to make someone else's dream your own dream.  This was disempowering, and I'm very glad I stopped.

If it resonates to do Cobra meditations, that's fine.  Just make sure this is what you really feel guided to do.  I suggest to not do Cobra meditations out of guilt-induced responsibility.  Do them if they are a part of who you are.

Should You Listen To Me? 

Should readers of my blog listen to anything I say?  This blog has my own findings that may or may not benefit others.  If some of 'my thing' resonates with others and is helpful to others, I accept this.  If not, I accept this too, and they are free to move on to something else (free will). 

We all have different walks in life.  If all people always did the same thing there would be no uniqueness, and humans would not be worthy of existence.