Caleb Ontiveros

Stoicism is 90% action and only 10% theory. One way to ensure that we get action right, is to practice Stoicism in a smaller domain, such as meditation or exercise.

I recently spoke to William Stephens for Stoa Conversations (coming soon!). In preparation for this, I read his book Marcus Aurelius: A Guide For The Perplexed. You can treat the book as a guide for reading Meditations. Here are what I took to be the most important upshots of the book.

All this hurrying from place to place won't bring you any relief, for you're traveling in the company of your own emotions, followed by your troubles all the way.

Here are several simple, practical steps for mindfulness meditation. I think about the meditation in three steps: preparation, meditation, grounding. PreparationPhysicalFind somewhere comfortable where you can meditate for awhile without

I’m happy to announce the launch of Stoa, a Stoic meditation and journal app.

Dopamine fasting has been trending up recently. Entrepreneurs are trying it, psychologists are recommending it, while others are hating on it. What is it?

Stoics don’t trust pleasure. Here’s Seneca summarizing Stoicism: Cling tooth and nail to the following rule: Not to give in to adversity, never to trust prosperity, and always

When you’re consuming Stoic literature, you need to convert that to action. Consumption is much easier than production. But it’s action and character that are truly valuable.

Life isn’t completely random. We can influence the game. We do have significant control. But we get attached to many things outside of our control. Our social status, relationship, health, mortality. For Stoics these are indifferent. They are good, but now what life is ultimately about.

Ensuring that self help helps.

Do not seek for things to happen the way you want them to; rather, wish that what happens happen the way it happens: then you will be happy.

It’s important to recognize that the Stoics emphasized the social nature of human beings and that the Stoic principles concern the world, not just our own minds.

Life is a choice. The choice here is not about whether or not to have pain. It is whether or not to live a valued, meaningful life. You’ve had enough suffering. Get out of your mind and into your life.

If you understand acceptance, awareness, action, and antifragility you understand Stoicism.

The Greek and Roman philosophy of Stoicism shows you how to stay present, handle stressors, and shape the world. This matters for getting stuff done.

The universe is transformation, life is opinion.

Resilience is a valuable trait, but it’s not nearly as valuable as becoming antifragile. What’s the difference? The resilient withstands stress, the antifragile becomes better because of it. In this article, I’ll show you how to develop mental antifragility.

When should you change yourself? When should you change the world? It depends. Stoicism has the answer.

The pros and cons of Stoic voluntary discomfort.

What are practicing Stoics to make of meditation? Irrespective of its popularity, I think there’s a strong case can be made in favor of adding it to the Stoic toolkit.