What text or quote from stoicism has helped you the most?

I ask because I believe stoicism has helped me a lot but I did not realize it until recently. I have been told I am mentally strong, having survived what troubles life has given me. I do not think I am. I just do not see any benefit from breaking down.

I still struggle with managing anger, expectations etc. I think we all do. But overall I feel I am doing...ok.

However, when I see how much trouble others have, I definitely feel I am handling things better than they are.

I want to help them if I can. But I am also not "selling" stoicism. I want it to pique their interest so they might come to it themselves.

What quotes helped you the most? What do you think could help those who struggle with the unfairness of modern society, life in general, and stress?

Thank you in advance.

This is the part of the project that most parents, including me, would rather not face directly. It is much easier to hand a child a book, or quote Marcus Aurelius at the dinner table, or explain the dichotomy of control when they are upset about something. None of it works. Not because the ideas are wrong, but because children do not learn philosophy from what you tell them. They learn it from what they watch you do.

They are watching constantly. They are watching how you handle the morning you are running late and the coffee spills. How you talk about the driver who cut you off. How you respond to the email that ruined your afternoon. How you sit with disappointment when something you wanted did not arrive. They are building their model of how a person meets the world, and the model they are building is you.

This is uncomfortable because it removes the option of teaching what you have not yet learned. You cannot lecture your child into steadiness if you are not steady. You cannot ask them to separate impressions from reality if you let your own impressions run you. You cannot ask them to accept what is not up to them while you spend your evenings complaining about what is not up to you. They will absorb the contradiction long before they can name it,
and what they will absorb is the contradiction, not the teaching.

The Stoics understood this. Seneca writes that the longest way to learn is by precept, the shortest by example. Musonius Rufus, who was a teacher of teachers, was clear that philosophy is shown more than spoken. Marcus Aurelius opens the Meditations not with doctrine but with a list of the people whose example shaped him, what he learned from his grandfather, his father, his mother, his tutors. Twelve books of philosophy begin with a roll call of people he watched.

So if you want to teach your children Stoicism, the work is on you first. Not as performance, because children see through performance instantly. As genuine practice. You handle the small things well so they see how the small things are handled. You meet the hard things with reason so they see what reason looks like under pressure. You apologize when you fail, because Stoicism is not the absence of failure but the honest response to it, and they need to see that too.

This is the version of the work no one wants. It is also the only version that produces children who carry the philosophy into their own lives, because by the time they need it, they will already know what it looks like. They will have been watching it for years.

I am 19m,There's a friend of mine ,he is very good friend (best friend) for 2+ years,some days ago he like thuged me for like 250/-rs and now I am too frustrated and upset like why he did that?. there's not about money but why (he belongs from very very rich family and have money too.

I typed these words MYSELF. This is NOT ai generated.

I’m thinking about becoming a celibate, I have a lot more things to be worried about in life. Everybody’s life is different. Some people are lucky, they have no worries, live happily, and are financially well, and some are not. It’s normal. That’s how life is. It’s not the same for everybody. We have to endure it, there’s no other choice

I’m going through some very tough times. I’ve let down everyone who trusted me, and because of that I’m in a tough situation. Well, it’s life. We have to live it. What else can we do? I can’t just go and kill myself just to escape. It would be cowardice, to let others suffer because of you while you just stop suffering from the materialistic aspects of life.

A few weeks ago, I was shocked to find out a friend of mine had committed suicide. We studied together in the same class for four years, and I was just shocked when I came to know of it. There is no escape from your karma. We have to live it, in this life or the other. We have to endure the karma of our doings.

I have let down the ones who trusted me for years, and now they are suffering because of me. I did not do what I should have done, and I’m worried about it now while I took it casually then. I don’t know what to do.

One thing I have sort of decided is to eliminate my needs and feelings altogether, at least some form of punishment, to teach myself to forgo the materialistic needs of man, so I can be not better, but different from anyone. Lust, lust towards anything, is one of the biggest materialistic feelings in the world, and I understand that more than anything.

I’m at an age where people a year or two younger than me are getting married, and others are asking me when mine is. While I do feel good about all that, I tell myself not to avoid it, but to let it go and pursue what you should, not what you want.

It’s like this feeling where we actually want something, but there is a pull from within, telling you, yes, you need it, but don’t get it. I don’t know how to explain that.

I’m kind of detaching myself from all these physical attachments. I’m not trying to be a monk or something, but just some way of self punishment. We can’t kill ourselves, can we? It stays there as a black mark, more to suffer later on. I have excellently managed to stay away from lust for months at a time as a record.

I’m at a position where I am actually helpless and keep asking why I was brought into this world. Everybody has a purpose in life, some form or the other. What is my purpose?

I ask myself every day, every hour at some point, what am I supposed to do? I have failed in my life more than twice, major failures, including academically and career wise. I have let down people who believed in me, trusted in me, hoped in me, but I’ve let them down.

What does the world expect from “some ant in the Amazon”? What am I supposed to do? I have no idea.

While I continuously look at my own life in the mirror and ask myself every single day, I realize I have let down people, and I’m unable to live with that. So I’m seeing this as a punishment in some ways, to detach myself from every desire and pursue myself to follow what I was supposed to do and finish what I should have.

But I know the pain is there, the pain of forgoing the things in life we all want, and it haunts me every time I think of it and see others live through those things.

I ask myself, am I doing right? Should I do it?

But then all the thoughts about where I am now and what led me to where I am tell me, yes, you have to. This is your punishment. If you can’t kill yourself, then live for the ones whom you let down and do what you are supposed to do.

After all, life is like an ECG reading. It’s full of ups and downs. We have to live it, there’s no other choice. If it goes blank, then we become that cloth which we wore for years, or a week, and then threw away.

He died last month. He was a complicated man and we did not have an easy relationship in his last decade but I respected him and I loved my wife and she is shattered.
The will reading included a clause we did not see coming. He requested his ashes be scattered off the Dalmatian coast, specifically near a small island where he and his first wife (not my mother in law) spent their honeymoon in 1968.
The clause stipulates this must happen within 90 days of his death or the bulk of the estate is redirected to a charity none of us have heard of.
My wife is the executor.
She is also drowning in grief and trying to manage her mother who is furious about the first wife reference and refusing to participate. We have to pull this trip together in 60 days now and I am the one doing the logistics because she cannot.
The practical mess is that my wife's passport expired and our two kids have never had passports. I need to coordinate three applications including two minor DS 11s while running interference between a grieving wife and an angry mother in law who is threatening to contest the will.
I am trying to apply some stoic discipline here, focus only on what I can control, but the official passport site is genuinely beyond my bandwidth at the moment.
For anyone who has had to execute a complicated final wish under a deadline, how did you keep your head straight? And separately, what is the least mentally taxing way to handle multiple passport applications in a short window?

In a continued effort to best help foster an educated and true to the philosophy Stoic space, I know we are fond of meta dialogues regarding how we as a community handle common posts.

I think many of our efforts have led to good results! I know the flair requirements rub some the wrong way but I think the data backs up that it was a good move that has lead to more productive conversations. (I believe the mods have shared data on this).

In that spirit, I’d like to unpack another common situation that comes up here: new learners misunderstanding or using common phrases.

A few questions to test assumptions:

A philosophy meant for living would naturally leave room for pedagogy and gradual development. Agreed?

Progress generally includes mistakes and the correction of faulty interpretation. Can we reasonably say this is true of the path of the prokopton?

When someone comes asking questions about life itself, not syntax or clarification of term usage, what does the virtue of justice look like in our response to them?

If all of us are still students in some sense, at what point do we feel justified responding with reflexive corrective responses or dismissiveness toward imperfect formulations?

And at what stage of our own progress should we feel confident inferring a person’s deeper beliefs or character beyond what they have actually stated? What is the internal process that leaves one assured?

Many times the sticking point on posts seems to be forgetting that Stoicism’s path includes embracing virtue and striving to live as a morally good person. A clear miss on the new learner’s part. What responsibility does that leave us with when fielding these questions or points of confusion?

These are genuine questions. I think they matter deeply if Stoicism is truly meant to function as a lived philosophy rather than merely a technical system of definitions. I understand the importance of clarity and it is in that spirit that I’m looking to help the community raise clarity to a potential pattern of its own.

As I like to say, the onus is on us. There will always be unclear language, misuse of terms, mistakes, and imperfect understanding. The question is not simply whether we notice them, but what stirs within us when we do?

Communities naturally develop patterns of interpretation and response over time. That is part of human nature. Which is exactly why it becomes such valuable material for collective introspection and prosoche. Left unexamined, even well-intentioned corrective habits can slowly harden into reflexive assumptions or social reinforcement loops without anyone fully noticing it happening.

That possibility alone seems worth reflecting on carefully within a philosophy so centered on assent, judgment, and self-examination. At the very least: an interesting group exercise.

I look forward to participating with the responses!

I see my friends travelling other countries and I envy their financial freedom. I lost my job a year ago, and I feel that society has thrown me under the bus. The depression is very heavy. I have tried to be successful but I couldn't do it. I am near 30 now yet I have little to no savings. I feel left behind in life.

The issue is that I fear Stoicism cannot help me with this, I carry my frustration of being a failure, being friendless, unwanted by society, never having a relationship ever, not seeing the world and doing my dreams while seeing others do better.

Hello.

I work in an environment that is toxic (in a restaurant). Some people really like gossiping constantly, make passive aggressive jokes, tease, provoke etc.

I don't take it personally. What they think of me, I don't care. I also understand very well why they behave a certain way.. however, their behaviour still hurts me because they demand my attention. They keep spewing negativity at everything, at me, other members of staff, at guests, and I absorb it. If I try to stay neutral, they pick up on that, they are pretty sensitive themselves and try to over compensate my neutrality by being extra nice (in a fake away).

I wish I could be completely indifferent to them. But I am a very sensitive person and I pick up so much on their negativity.

I have been introspecting and I realize that some of my reluctance to engage in social gatherings, events etc is a fake « snobism »

When I decide that it is time to meet people and extend my social circle I get this anxiety and try to rationalise it by putting myself above the kind of events and gatherings I find

But today I decided to sit with the feeling and ask myself why I was feeling like this

And realize it was actually fear and anxiety that it would make me learn things about myself that I wasn’t ready to

The anxiety of learning that I am perhaps not as interesting as I thought, or anxiety that I might get in an uncomfortable social situation and not know how to respond etc… and somehow being taken out of my pedestal

So it is actually the opposite

I don’t know if this resonates with anybody or what you guys think about it, and what I should do

Hello, I am looking for advice on a stoic response to the fact that there is one person in my life that I can’t escape the instant reaction to- which is my wife.
I know that the power that I have is that I can control how I respond to a situation- and I am much better at that since I started studying stoic philosophy. In fact I am even much better at it with my wife, but I am not good enough. As a bit of background she suffers from some mental illness- it is mostly under control but her personality has changed markedly from the person that I fell in love with and married.

She ……..really doesn’t like me. I don’t exactly know why. I am sure I am not perfect and I am very introspective about how I act. Slight aside that I am the sole breadwinner for our family- have been for more than 20 years and while I am successful it is an extremely demanding job and an incredible grind to keep it up- and I cannot stop with kids about to go to college - but I also do a significant amount of work at home - Take care of half of cooking and meals for the kids, do laundry, drive kids where they need whenever I am available.

I obviously know that there is an answer that includes separating from her but I have decided that kids being in an intact family with two parents is much more important and I don’t want them to be in a situation where their mother is not okay. I decided that my kids being okay is far more important than my happiness in the relationship- I have made my peace with that.

What I can’t figure out how to deal with is how she treats me which includes her walking around the house in a rage, being mean and verbally abusive towards me. I have described to my therapist the feeling of being punch drunk ( although no physical abuse) from the constant barrage. There are snippets of the person I love that come out every so often and all the feelings come flooding back but I have this nearly existential hurt that I am married to someone who treats me this way. It is as if I don’t have a safe space in my life other than when I am alone or it is just me and my kids.

Again, I know that my reaction is the thing I have power over but this is someone who I just don’t have the level of defenses for. So beyond the thoughts of my reaction- are there other stoic writings that give advice on how to think about these situations. My goal is to protect my own mental state so I can otherwise be the best me for my children.

I was in my first relationship for 2.5 years while in university. I was very ambitious, studious, and driven, while he was lazy and unmotivated. We were both studying computer science.

He used to get upset at me for not spending enough "quality time" with him, although I saw him almost every day and called him nightly, and it got to the extent that he would start arguments the night before assignment deadlines, exams and job interviews, etc. There were times I made it to the final rounds of interviews for extremely prestigious companies, and he would lash out at me for not spending enough "quality time" literally the night before the interview (coding/technical interviews for which I was trying to prepare).

In the meantime, I was doing my best to support him. When he was too lazy to apply for internships, I would find listings for him to apply to, help him with his resumés and cover letters, do background research to help him prepare for interviews because he always insisted he didn't need to do anything to prepare. I helped him a lot with his schoolwork, too, but otherwise he cheated his way through it using AI or getting answers from other people.

I finally broke up with him a few months ago, and in that time, he has suddenly gained a lot of motivation to succeed in his career. To the extent that the internship he landed is better than mine. It isn't really that his work ethic changed, because all of his side projects are completely AI-generated, and he says he can't code without AI, and he also flat-out lies on his resume 😭 But he is still successful.

I am struggling a lot with resentment now. Partly because, whenever I speak to him these days, he lacks the sensitivity not to brag about how great his internship is and how well he's doing. Partly because I don't think he deserves it, both on a moral level after how he treated me and on a practical level because he cheated and conned his way to get there. A massive part of it is insecurity, comparing my trajectory to his, feeling so incredibly stupid that I didn't leave the very first time he hindered me from studying for an exam. I know I should cut him off, that his life has no effect on mine anymore, that the world isn't fair and injustices exist. But I find it extremely emotionally hard to let go of him and face the concept of forever without a person who meant a lot to me for a very long time in spite of everything. And yet staying in contact with him just continually brings up such intense resentment and insecurity.

I wonder if anyone has any relevant texts or concepts from stoicism to address something like this

a brief intro about me, i'm a teen guy who was preparing for some entrance exam. i started my preparation back in 2023. after 2 years of hard work, eventually i was able to get the desired result of "many". i could've chosen any uni with that score. but my greed along with my over confidence in my potential made one silly decision of giving myself another. i was hoping that with one more year in hand, i would be able to score much better than this and might even get the result i always wanted.

moving forward to 2026, i couldn't make it. i'll be getting much lesser score than last year. one single greedy decision led me to this situation. although i still can make it as i still have one more entrance left but now i've just lost the will to try. i'm not sure what went wrong.

I had a brief tangential discussion with another user who claimed that ultimately there isn't much difference between Stoicism and Broicism/$toicism when it comes to how to approach the so called "indifferents". Using the end of Epictetus Enchiridion 1 to make his point; since indifferents are "nothing to you", both the Stoic and Broic will be justified to pursue whatever indifferent is most preferred, as long as it doesn't interfere with virtue and you're chill about it. I think it's more complicated than this so I asked him to make post on it. He didn't end up doing that so I figured I'd make it instead.

As I see it, it seems to be a misunderstanding of the value of indifferents and the virtue-indifferents relationship. Or at least a case of not really thinking it through. I think in many (but not all) cases the Broic and Stoic will end up with different beliefs and actions. It will probably be most apparent in how we treat other people. So here's my attempt at explaining where I think it goes wrong. It's not so much my own ideas, but a synthesis of what I've learned from other peoples comments, interpretations and translations.

This is the passage, Epictetus Enchiridion 1, translated by Waterfield:

>So take up the practice right now of telling every disagreeable impression, ‘You’re an impression, and not at all what you appear to be.’ Then go on to examine it and assess it by these criteria of yours, and first and foremost by this one: whether it has to do with the things that are up to us or the things that are not up to us. And if it has to do with the things that are not up to us, have at hand the reminder that it’s nothing to you.

With the key part being how we interpret the last four words "it's nothing to you".

A literal interpretation

I will probably straw-man the "Broic" or "$toic" interpretation a bit here. But for the sake of discussion here is an attempt to imagine the kind of reasoning that will lend one to interpret "it's nothing to me" in the most literal way. Which I will argue is mistaken and incongruent with the rest of Stoicism. It could be something along the lines of this:

1. Epictetus says that any impression about something that isn't "up to me" is "nothing to me"
2. X isn't up to me
3. X is nothing to me
4. If something is nothing to me that means I should not care about it or concern myself with it, maybe even ignore it. It has no value, it's literally nothing.
5. So X has no value and I should not concern myself with it

The conclusion being that nothing else than myself or own reasoning/character has any value and should not be an object of my concern. From this kind of interpretation one might reach the disgusting conclusion that the Stoics suggested we should not care for other people. Or at least without any second thought follow along with the popular catchphrase "only focus on whats in your control"

The problem with a literal interpretation

But my question then is how one can possibly fit this kind of interpretation with the rest of Stoicism and the important concepts like oikeiosis, justice, family affection and fellow-feeling? I am wondering how someone could reconcile it with a quote like this one, which basically boils down the virtue-indifferent relationship in two sentences, my bold:

>Likewise, life is an indifferent, but what we make of life isn’t indifferent. So, when you’re told that even these things are indifferents, that’s not a reason for carelessness; and when you’re urged to take care, that’s not a reason for debasing yourselves and placing value on material things.

Epictetus, Discourses 2.6.1

Luckily I don't think people in most case will be able to follow through on this reasoning the entire way. Sure, if X is today's weather then no harm no foul. But you'll run into problems as soon as you're dealing with something that actually is important. You'll realize it's not even possible to consider that indifferent as being completely devoid of any sort of value (even if Epictetus warns again in the passage above not to "place value on material things")

As an example, let's say the X above is my child's health. We know justice is a part of virtue and that justice is related to how we should treat other people.

To give poisoned food to my child so that she dies is to give an indifferent to an indifferent where the result is an indifferent. To give nutritious food to my child in an attempt to promote her health is also to give an indifferent to an indifferent where the result is an indifferent.

Hopefully very few people would agree that the difference between those two choices is literally "nothing" for someone trying to be good person. That they would somehow be equally just, from the information we have. I don't expect there is anything to support the idea that the stoic Sage would be equally likely to poison his children than to give them nutritious food. Even though, strictly speaking, other people, life, food and health are all indifferents. So there is something about these indifferents that informs his reasoning, telling him that the second one is appropriate and the first is not. Either some kind of value or some kind of epistemic marker in those indifferents.

"No shit, Sherlock" you may say then. But if we do interpret Epictetus in the most literal way - "it is nothing to me" - I think it will be difficult to explain exactly why the first is unjust and the second closer to justice.

Sure, in this example you'll probably end up thinking something like "I'll try my best and whatever happens happens". And in many cases whatever you end up doing then may not be off the mark. But this only goes as long as your best isn't selfish, callous or doesn't fit with everything else that Stoicism teaches. But I fear if you do take in it the most literal way, then you could very well end up exactly there in some cases: "The way I spoke to my wife made her upset, but I'll remember to say that is nothing to me"

#Taking another look The problem I think is attempting to isolate virtue from indifferents.

It's not either or, virtue is the knowledge and expertise of how to handle indifferents well. If there are no indifferents then there is nothing for virtue to work on. There is no virtue.

That I have access to food, or that my children are alive is (conceptually, although it may be hard to ever fully stomach) not something that can make the difference between my ability to live a good life or not. But the way I handle every indifferent is the one and only thing that can make this difference.

It's not enough to look at a list and see that some (life, health) are preferred and some (illness, death) are dispreferred and from that expect that to always guide you into getting it right. That is the job of wisdom and progress towards wisdom is progress towards always getting it right when it comes to making decisions about indifferents. It's not about always maximizing preferred over dispreffered. Sometimes you have information that tells you the wise choice is selecting the latter over the former.

So what does this mean for the sentence "It's nothing to me"?. How I would read it is instead like this: "It's not my doing" or "It's not something that comes from me or that depend on me".

But if I were to elaborate on it just to make it easier to understand I would perhaps read "it's nothing to me" as: "It's not something that depend on me and not something where in itself the truly good or bad is found. But the way I handle it depend on me, and that is where the good and bad is found". Then I can fit it with the rest of Stoicism. Virtue, justice, oikeiosis, love, affection and fellow-feeling and so on. Then the reasoning could instead look something like this:

1. Epictetus says anything that isn't "up to me" is not something that depend on me and not something where itself the truly good or bad is found. But the way I handle it depend on me, and that is where the good and bad is found
2. X isn't up to me
3. The way I handle X is can be good or bad
4. My job is trying to handle X in a good way
5. If I don't know what it means to handle X in a good way, or if that is what I'm currently doing, then I should try to find this out

That my child is hungry and need food is not something that comes from me. But what comes from me is that I handle it as well as I can, in this case by giving her nutritious food, as this is what I can reasonably believe is appropriate from my limited understanding and lack of knowledge what the future will bring. Even the Sage is not omniscient and would have to make such decisions with the reservation that he doesn't know what the future brings.

I find this topic of indifferents very difficult and it's not something I claim to fully understand. But I do think it's mistaken to consider them as being literally "nothing". My child's health is not nothing to me, it's a marker for something that I must deal with well.

And to be clear my example above is a hyperbole. I hope and think that in most cases the Broic and Stoic will end up taking similar actions when it comes to something like caring for their children. But I think there will be divergence in how they treat spouses, friends, colleagues, neighbours, strangers and the like in their everyday lives. Or even other indifferents such as money, reputation and health. But we can't separate indifferents from virtue, the indifferents partake in the good when used in a good way and likewise with the bad.

Hello everyone! Im fairly new to stoicism and have only read a little of Discourses and Selected Writings and the Enchiridion by Epictetus so I feel like Im starting to learn the basics but have a lot of trouble applying it to my own life. However I recently have become disabled and feel like I need stoicism or some form or mental practice/strengthening to get through this.

Background. Just under 2 years ago I was crushed in a forklift accident. At first the doctors had me on meds that helped with the chronic pain from the accident and I was able to keep working. But the pain keeps worsening and the doctors have done all they can do (trust me they have) making it incredibly hard to walk, sometimes I cant.

So now im facing the fact that I am officially disabled and Im supposed to return to work in 2 weeks but my doctors will not realese me for work, as they shouldnt, working is literally destroying my body.

Im struggling with so many aspects of this from not being able to earn an income anymore, to needing far more help from everyone around me just to survive, and difficulty still feeling valuable to the world and not just like a big burden.

Is there any stoic concepts that I could focus on that help more with this part of life or can help me process what im going through? What would be the best readings to look into and what strategies might help me apply stoicism to my life and my situation? I feel very lost right now.

Hi everyone ! I'm an absolute beginner and am going to start reading about stoicism to help me deal with a difficult situation. Please recommend a book so i can weather the storm !

My situation:

I'm a masters student in India who will be graduating in July 2026. Despite giving many interviews, I still haven't been able to secure a job. The last two years have been super crazy. I have been diagnosed with two diseases as a result performed poor in all academic aspects.

I have seen people who did not study as much as me, getting very well paying jobs. I feel life is very unfair to me and as a result I am becoming bitter. I am constantly comparing and becoming very jealous.

Currently, the job market for new grads is very very bad in India. Getting a job is very very difficult here now. I feel scared about what I am going to go through in the coming months. I am afraid the misery and the stress I will undergo.

My request:

Kindly recommend me a beginner's book which will help me accept my illness, the unfairness of life and the upcoming situation calmly ! I want to make the best out of this situation and come out unscathed !

Also wish me luck guys !

TLDR:

Recommend me a book on stoicism so I can deal with illnesses, unemployment, bitterness and a potentially scary future !

Hi all,

I've been working in project management for a few months, with a background in economics. The work is fine but I've always felt something is missing, specifically, I don't feel like my work has a real impact on people's lives. That bothers me more than I'd like to admit.

I loved philosophy in school and recently started exploring it again as a way to develop personally, not professionally, just to live and think better. Stoicism keeps coming up in everything I read. The idea of focusing on what you can control, acting with purpose, and contributing to something beyond yourself resonates deeply with me.

For those of you who came to Stoicism from analytical or business backgrounds: how did it change the way you work and live? And where did you start?

Looking for honest experiences, not just book recommendations (though those are welcome too).

Thank you all!

Not sure how to write this without being insensitive, boring, or giving an excessive background but I'll try.

I'm fortunate enough to be able to say that I have tried a couple careers, travelled overseas, have saved some money, have a small friend group of three, no kids, no house, new partner, Australian 30M.

Times are certainly harder for others, so I want to be mindful, but I still want to give a background here.

---

The reality is, no matter how much I appreciate what I have, I still don't know who I am, where I'm going, what brings me joy.

The older I get, the more I believe that we're all here for no divine reason. However, if life is all that we will experience, then it makes sense to enjoy it while it lasts. I've always had the thoughts since early childhood but the gravity it's getting stronger.

I'm also beginning to struggle with more realities beyond my control, like the fact that:

1. time is finite, I will get old, have health issues, and die;

2. a larger part of society is being left behind,

3. the geopolitical landscape is transforming and becoming more fragile,

4. greed has and will continue to consume political priorities,

5. consumerism and economic growth are necessary unrelenting pollutants,

6. environmental protection is largely considered a nuisance,

7. societies will grow but there are always consequences that harm others.

The reason why I mention these perspectives is not to explore them here, but as some context to why so many simple things in life have become unenjoyable.

I like hiking mountains and camping, but it's less than 10% of my life. I don't know how to enjoy anything else.

---

a. How does one enjoy nothing?

b. How do you enjoy routine tasks?

c. Im not sure if I am enjoying anything, or if I am but I don't know that I am?

d. How do people find new things to enjoy?

---

If you resonate with any of that yarn of mine, let me know about you: how you think, what you focus on, what you do, or anything else?

I probably won't get into a DNM here but would love to just read about you all in the comments

I would define myself as a very emotionally calm and mature person, trying to apply as much stoicism into my life as possible. I don't have a gf so I practice semen retention which helps a lot, I workout, try to eat as healthy as possible.

My last job was terrible in terms of the job itself and accomodation, so I quit. (usually I work abroad and work always provides accomodation, after a while I take holidays, stay at my moms house and go back)

That's how pretty much all the past 10 years went by.

However, I struggle immensely with finances. And only now I understand how to manage them, after losing a lot of money on stupid shit and stupid investments, but the thing is now I'm broke. I have a few hunderd bucks to my name, and some loans. This month is covered but idk what I will do in the next one. There's not much people I can ask help for and I feel ashamed to do this even.

I probably get a job in a 2 weeks (hopefully) but I'm finding myself in an awful place. It takes a huge toll on me mentally, I try my best to stay strong but it's getting harder each day.

All I want is to relax a bit and in the future buy my mom a nice place to live (she rents) and retire her as well, and also help myself. I'm tired seeing everyone achieving something and for me it's one rock bottom after another one, it seems.

I just feel lost, shattered and have no idea how to deal with this. I had many brutal downfalls in my life but this one is the worst one tbh. I will appreciate any help.

He shoved me. Held my wrists so I couldn't move. Then looked me in the eyes and told me I was crazy when I called him out.

This was the same man who told me, more than once, that he never wanted to raise children in an environment of screaming and yelling.

Later that night he came into the guest room drunk, fell in the dark, sat on the floor saying you treated me like a dog — and then punched my luggage.

I couldn't lift him. He was bigger than me. So I did the only thing I could.

I grabbed my keys and slept in my car until my cousin arrived.

Epictetus said character is revealed under pressure, not declared in conversation. Anyone can tell you who they are. Very few actually show you.

I got shown.

The Stoics also talk about what is and isn't within our control. I couldn't control what he did in my home. I couldn't control the size difference or the intoxication or the audacity of a man calling me crazy after putting his hands on me.

What I controlled was the door I walked out of.

That was enough.