Benefits of Stoicism

If I were to name some of the greatest benefits I’ve experienced from engaging in a more consistent Stoic practice, I would mention improved health and well-being, greater clarity in my thinking, stronger connections with others, and significant changes in my career – including the decision to leave a high-stress position that didn't permit me to live in accordance with nature for a new position that does.

These positive shifts are meaningful – and they are also measurable. Whether that’s in qualitative ways – like what my friends and family members might say about a new richness in our connections; or in quantitative ways – like the numeric results from annual lab work and medical reports. In either case, I have clear evidence that there is real and enduring value in the work I’m doing to try to be a more virtuous person.

More satisfaction, less frustration

These practices and experiences have allowed me to find greater satisfaction and less frustration in my days. I am happier – and that is its own reward. But even more than that, I’ve found that the feeling I have is not just of situational happiness – connected to these individual pieces of my life – rather, it is of a deep and abiding sense of something I can only describe as an ongoing, ever-present awareness of joy.

Joy as a tool

Some of the ways that this joy is changing me have been clear and predictable – but some have been unexpected, even surprising. As I reflect on this, I’m reminded of Marcus Aurelius’ thoughts:

Different people find their joy in different things; and it is my joy to keep my ruling centre unimpaired, and not turn my back on any human being or on anything that befalls the human race, but to look on all things with a kindly eye, and welcome and make use of each according to its worth. - Meditations 8.3

The first time I read this passage, a few years ago, what most caught my attention was the caution “to keep my ruling centre unimpaired.” As someone who, at that time, suffered from an unhealthy obsession with exercising control within the spaces in which I found myself, it struck me, wrongly, as a call to action.

I initially understood it to mean that I should keep my expressions of personal authority unhindered – and paid little attention to Marcus’ words of compassion for others as members of the human race.

Joy cannot coexist with rigidly controlling thoughts

But as time went on, as I found myself just a little bit further along on a more virtuous path, I realized that the joy I was beginning to feel could not exist concurrently with those rigidly controlling, less compassionate actions. I also discovered how delightful the tool of joy can be when shared with others in gentle ways.

I stopped demanding – and focused more on helping – and undertook tasks that needed completion in ways that would allow me to “look on all things with a kindly eye,” rather than with the rigid approach I’d taken previously.

Joy as an outcome

Then, over time, rather than the discomfort resulting from the earlier behaviours I exhibited, I came to act in ways that reflected the virtues more thoughtfully – on my own, and when working with others. I saw joy as a core expression of better choices. That joy was evidence of what can happen when virtues are prioritized in daily life.

Joy and competitive thoughts

Through some rigorous selfexamination, I recognized that the urge to be “the first” in any given situation was rarely about connecting with colleagues and sharing ideas, as I’d often claimed in my own defense. Rather, it was a desire to claim power – and, quite honestly, an attempt to dominate. That high-stress position I left celebrated that kind of command – and leaving that role was the direct result of my decision that I no longer wanted to live that way. I wanted joy as my outcome.

Choosing better habits of thought

And, now, while I admit, freely, that I still have a great deal of daily work to do to be the person who would “not turn my back on any human being or on anything that befalls the human race,” I can say that I’m more courageous in my willingness to abandon those problematic habits. I’m now committed to choosing better ones. I now know that my past actions and ways of thinking only brought struggle – to myself and to others. A life with joy is so much better.

Andi Sciacca is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she is an Associate Professor II of Critical Studies at The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD). She is also engaged in several nonprofit leadership roles – including serving as a member of the Modern Stoicism Steering Committee.

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