Blog Posts

September 3, 2023 - The Stoic Gym Blog
Tag(s): Freedom || Mindfulness || Stoicism

Total Freedom: Part 3. How to Achieve Total Freedom

As we discussed earlier, we feel that we lack many things and that when we attain them, we will be free. Yet the Stoics insisted that true freedom does not come from wealth, prestige, a perfect body, work that you like, or even your relationships.

August 30, 2023 - The Stoic Gym Blog
Tag(s): Freedom || Mindfulness || Stoicism

Total Freedom: Part 2. A portrait of a free person

Before discussing how to achieve total freedom, let us look at a person who is totally free. What makes us free? Stoics believed that the only true freedom is psychological freedom.

August 27, 2023 - The Stoic Gym Blog
Tag(s): Freedom || Mindfulness || Stoicism

Total Freedom: Part 1. Why are we not free?

The Stoic promise is that total freedom is possible. We will see how we can achieve total freedom in this series.

August 6, 2023 - The Stoic Gym Blog
Tag(s): Joy || Mindfulness || Stoicism

Stoic Joy: 2. How to find joy?

In Part 1 of this blog, we discussed what prevents us experiencing joy. Here we will discuss some specific ways to achieve joy. Although the Stoics emphasized being rational and virtuous as the cause of joy, they did provide some specific suggestions about finding joy in our daily lives.

July 30, 2023 - The Stoic Gym Blog
Tag(s): Joy || Mindfulness || Stoicism

Stoic Joy: 1. Why are we not joyful?

Few of us experience joy on an ongoing basis. Sure, we have periods of happiness, usually when we achieve something or get something. But soon we get used it and we go back to our natural level of happiness.

June 21, 2023 - The Stoic Gym Blog
Tag(s): Seneca || Stoicism

The Importance of Time

Stoics believed that we are given just this one thing – time. Time is what our life is made of. Whether we live to be 100 years old or die young, it doesn’t matter. Once we use up our allotted time, we have nothing.

September 11, 2021 - Ancient Stoicism in Plain English
Tag(s): Stoicism

Share Your Knowledge

Seneca wrote a series of letters to his young friend Lucilius on various topics. Taken together these letters can be considered as an exposition of Stoicism and how to apply it to our daily lives. This plain English version of the Letters closely follows the original.

August 21, 2021 - The Stoic Gym Blog
Tag(s): Anger || Stoicism

Sixteen Best Ways to Outsmart Anger

Ancient Stoics recognized anger to be a destructive emotion. Seneca said, “No plague has cost the human race more.” While we may feel good while expressing anger, most of us don’t like being angry and we don’t generally like being around people who are angry.

August 14, 2021 - The Stoic Gym Blog
Tag(s): Stoic Self-help || Stoicism

How to be at Peace with Ourselves: Stoic Guidance

We are not always at peace with ourselves. We get upset with others when we think they have wronged us, abused us, hurt us, insulted us, stolen from us, or done something that they ‘shouldn’t have’. When we think like this, we are not at peace with ourselves.

July 24, 2021 - The Stoic Gym Blog
Tag(s): Appropriate action || Stoic Self-help || Stoicism

How to Deal with Insults

Insults take many shapes and forms. When we take something as an insult, we may be justified in doing so. Or we might be misinterpreting the situation. Or we may be seeing things that are not there. Depending on how sensitive you are, you can see many things as insulting.