Summary
Stoics believed that anger and depression were caused by collisions of hope and reality and people being unable to recognize and reconcile their place in the universe and that is still 100% true today.
#FirstCoffeeThoughts
I have said many times that those who are most angry are usually the ones who believe themselves to be helpless (or are in a literal sense like small children for example).
The Stoics believed that anger, and especially depression, were caused by people not truly understanding/accepting their place in the universe; not seeing truth and reality and instead choosing delusion.
The constant collisions of hope and reality are what eventually destroy the heart and mind.
Stoicism, as many of you already know, is about acceptance of reality. It’s a philosophy that embraces logic and reason and is ultimately designed to make you more resilient, happier, more ethical and wiser.
It is about approaching life in a rational way and how that benefits others, not just ourselves.
It is about building a society of unselfish, emotionally regulated thinkers that consider others ahead of themselves and work towards their best so they can be their best for others.
Despite this clear definition, people still think stoicism is about “turning off emotion” and being Vulcans or something else ignorant.
Emotions do matter in stoicism … just not “passions”; the emotions that take over your mind and soul and cause dysregulation; things that make it impossible for you to think and act rationally. Logic and reason come BEFORE emotion, they DON’T REPLACE emotion.
If you don’t understand that, you are choosing not to simply because you prefer dysregulation.
What I often try to explain to people is that they are not actually helpless at all … that their anger, their dysregulation, their desire to lash out, seethe openly online to strangers, and the need for validation seeking are all symptoms of their inability to recognize who they truly are and where they truly belong.
The how, what, where, and why of life are not unanswerable questions, it just takes time, logic, acceptance and a desire to evolve past ignorance.
Many people lack that.
Wasting energy on being angry about things that are definitively out of your control is exactly that … a waste.
Your life energy is not infinite … you have only but so much time in this life to make it what you want, to become who you ideally wish to become …
Yet many people waste weeks, even decades, of their lives on useless emotions like anger or on dysregulated, emotional actions like hurting strangers online and engaging in other acts of self-loathing.
You can do better.
You are not helpless … you are useful and you have skills and knowledge to offer.
Perhaps you don’t know this yet because you are a stranger to yourself.
Perhaps you don’t see you own worth because you have been traumatized and you have never undergone a therapeutic healing process.
Perhaps you don’t recognize your place in the universe because so many people in your life – other dysregulated and angry people – have convinced you that you’re not important and that you don’t matter.
You do matter.
I can safely guarantee you that all of the miraculous, epic, mysterious things that had to converge to birth you into this reality didn’t happen for absolutely no reason … and they didn’t happen so that you could spend your life being miserable, angry, disruptive, and destructive to yourself and others.
The universe is mysterious but it is not doing things without reason or purpose.
You are not here by accident (even if your parents said so).
There are no accidents.
Whatever you believe in, whatever entity or force or just the PTB (powers that be).
Whatever you have decided is guiding your existence … you have at least determined that something IS guiding your existence and that nothing is happening to you by chance.
There are reasons, you just don’t know what they are or you think you are at the hands of whatever you believe in – even if it’s just something simple like “fate”.
You have a reason to be here.
You are here to LIVE and to LEARN.
Living and learning look different to everyone.
For some living is simply surviving and getting from one day to the next either because they have no choice or because they don’t see anything else as important.
For others living is THRIVING and making every moment in this life count and mean something.
For some learning just meant school.
For others learning never ends and is lifelong and they learn from everyone and everything they encounter in order to evolve fully as a human being.
How you see your life, how you come at your life, and how you exist in this life is what ultimately shapes your reality and your view of others.
So I repeat: ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ข๐๐ฌ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ฏ๐๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ญ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ซ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ฉ๐ซ๐๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ฐ๐๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐๐ ๐๐ฒ ๐๐จ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐ก๐จ๐ฉ๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ซ๐๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ฉ๐๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ ๐๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฎ๐ง๐๐๐ฅ๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ซ๐๐๐จ๐ ๐ง๐ข๐ณ๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ซ๐๐๐จ๐ง๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ข๐ซ ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐๐๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ฎ๐ง๐ข๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐ and that is still 100% true.
To embrace logic, reason, reality, yourself, others, and to see life as opportunities to grow and evolve changes EVERYTHING.
Try it.
You cannot change most things about the life and the true reality we exist in as a collective.
You have zero power as an individual to change the wheels of the machine that creates the systems we are trapped in, oppressed by, and harmed by.
What you CAN DO is move beyond those limitations in your heart, mind, and soul and dedicate your actions towards meaningful change and not anger and wastes of time and energy.
Direct that energy towards yourself and others.
Hear. Help. Heal.
You have something to bring the world beyond anger, seetheposting, exploding, and dragging others into your pain.
You can teach. You can listen. You can support. You can embrace. You can share. You can understand.
These are what the world NEEDS to survive the machine that crushes us all. These are the things we need to grow collectively strong to break that machine.
We can’t as individuals who are angry and dysregulated, but we can as a collective with clarity, wisdom, and strength.
Without logic, reason, truth, regulation, wisdom, unselfishness, and acceptance of self and others … there is no way to gain power, focus our strength, and bring positivity and goodness back into the world.
Without those things society will remain a cesspool of broken, viral, rabid, selfish, brainwashed people who all believe whatever they wish and live helpless, oppressed and angry.
One day at a time.
One person at a time … starting with YOURSELF.
That is how change truly happens.
You aren’t helpless.
But throwing yourself against a mountain is a waste of time and energy. You will never fell a mountain with your anger and stubbornness alone.
You will never find light in the darkness if you bring the darkness with you wherever you go and spread it to others through anger, dysregulation, and viral ragebait on social media.
Think bigger, collectively, reasonably, and logically.
Help yourself.
Evolve yourself.
Help others.
That is how things will truly begin to change.
