Example Daily Stoic Philosophy Regime

This entry is based on a post by Stoicism and The Art of Happiness.

Along with Zen Buddhism, I rely heavily on the ancient wisdom of the Stoics to guide me through my life.

I wanted to reblog Example Stoic Philosophy Regime for preservation’s sake and future reference. It’s a wonderful resource that helps you understand that Stoicism is not so much an ethos as it as a manner of living in accordance to reason and nature.

Here is an excerpt from containing a summary of it’s contents:

Appendix: Summary of Stoic Practices

To give you an idea of the breadth of Stoic practice, I’ve added a bullet-point list of some of the techniques found in the literature…

1. Contemplation of the Sage: Imagine the ideal Sage or exemplary historical figures (Socrates, Diogenes, Cato) and ask yourself: “What would he do?”, or imagine being observed by them and how they would comment on your actions.
2. Contemplating the Virtues of Other People: Look for examples of virtues among your friends, family, colleagues, etc.
3. Self-Control Training: Take physical exercise to strengthen self-discipline, practice drinking just water, eat plain food, live modestly, etc.
4. Contemplating the Whole Cosmos: Imagine the whole universe as if it were one thing and yourself as part of the whole.
5. The View from Above: Picture events unfolding below as if observed from Mount Olympus or a high watchtower.
6. Objective Representation: Describe events to yourself in objective language, without rhetoric or value judgements.
7. Contemplation of Death: Contemplate your own death regularly, the deaths of loved ones and even the demise of the universe itself.
8. Premeditation of Adversity: Mentally rehearse potential losses or misfortunes and view them as “indifferent” (decatastrophising), also view them as natural and inevitable to remove any sense of shock or surprise.
9. The Financial Metaphor: View your actions as financial transactions and consider whether your behaviour is profitable, e.g., if you sacrifice externals but gain virtue that’s profitable but, by contrast, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses himself.”
10. Accepting Fate (Amor Fati): Rather than seeking for things to be as you will, rather will for things to be as they are, and your life will go smoothly and serenely.
11. Say to External Things: “It is nothing to me.”
12. Say Over Loved-Ones: “Tomorrow you will die.”
13. Cognitive Distancing: Tell yourself it is your judgement that upset you and not the thing itself.
14. Postponement: Delay responding to things that evoke passion until you have regained your composure.
15. Picture the Consequences: Imagine what will happen if you act on a desire and compare this to what will happen if you resist it.
16. Cognitive Distancing: When something upsetting happens to you, imagine how you would view the same thing if it befell someone else and say, “Such things happen in life.”
17. Empathy: Remember that no man does evil knowingly and when someone does what doesn’t seem right, say to yourself: “It seemed so to him.”
18. Contemplate the Transience of all Things: When you lose something or someone say “I have given it back” instead of “I have lost it”, and view change as natural and inevitable.

Edit: Get a detailed breakdown of these practices in the 2013 Stoic Week Handbook, here, from The Exeter University.

Secondary link: Stoic_Week_2013_Handbook

Update: 11/2/2014

Stoic Regime from Scientia Salon

I came across the following routine on Philosophy webzine Scientia Salon, in the superb article Why Not Stoicism.

1) Early morning meditation: take 5-10 minutes to rehearse the day ahead, repeat a philosophical precept (see #4 below), focus on a specific virtue. Pick a quiet spot for doing this, if possible while walking outside.

2) Contemplation of the ideal Sage: make a list of people you admire, pick a role model and ask yourself what s/he would do in specific trying circumstances.

3) The stripping method: bring to mind a situation of interest, break it down into its bare components to see clearly what it actually consists of, stripping away the unimportant details that may cloud your judgment. Ask yourself what’s the ethical core of the situation and which qualities (virtues) are required to deal with it.

4) Retreat into oneself: find a place where you are not likely to be disturbed for 5-10 minutes; chose a Stoic maxim to focus on, such as “Some things are under our control and others are not.” Become aware of your surroundings and close your eyes. Focus on your breadths and mentally repeat your maxim.

5) Concentric circles: close your eyes and imagine a circle of light surrounding yourself. Slowly expand the circle to include your family and friends, your fellow citizens, and eventually the whole of humankind.

6) The view from above: visualize the big picture, your place in the cosmos.

7) The philosophical journal: write ethically-focused diary entries to try to relate what is going on in your life to your overall ethical framework.

8) Bedtime reflection: take 5-10 minutes before going to bed to review the day and its main events. It helps to keep a written journal for this exercise (see #7 above). Ask yourself what you did badly, what rightly, and what you omitted. Think about how you could do better, and praise yourself for what you did well.

Stoicism and the Art of Happiness

An Example Stoic Philosophy Regime

Modified Excerpt from The Philosophy of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (2010)

Copyright © Donald Robertson, 2010.  All rights reserved.

It is difficult, probably impossible, to do justice to the variety of therapeutic concepts, strategies, and techniques recommended by Stoic philosophers in an outline such as this. Nevertheless, I hope that by attempting to do so in relatively plain English, I will help to clarify their “art of living” somewhat, in a manner that may be of service to those who wish to make use of classical philosophy in modern life, for the purposes of self-help or personal development. It probably requires the self-discipline for which Stoics were renowned to follow a regime like this in full, and I imagine that the intention was to begin by attempting one step at a time. I certainly don’t propose this as an evidence-based treatment protocol but rather as an attempt…

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