After living as an Epicurean for the Week of Living Philosophically, I thought it would be interesting to live like a Stoic. Stoics focus on the virtues of wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation while understanding that only certain things are under our control. As a Stoic, I meditated for 10 minutes in the morning and the evening. This meditation was initially difficult, as I tend to continuously stimulate my brain to prevent my mind from wandering. However, meditating challenges this, as I must reflect on my thoughts. In the first session of meditation, I meditated for 20 minutes, which felt like an hour. I checked my clock multiple times to ensure my alarm was set. I had trouble focusing on the text for reflection, and my mind wandered to school assignments and social problems. By the end of the week, meditation became easier and more calming. Sunday’s midday reflection was difficult, as it forced me to examine a situation and the extent of my control over it. Losing control scares me, so evaluating what I have control over was hard. I tried to adopt a Stoic mindset and understand that most of the situation was out of my control, and I should only try to control what was under my control. Adopting a Stoic in the future would likely prevent me from overanalyzing situations and trying to control the actions of others.
The Circles of Hierocles was the most interesting exercise, as it allowed me to extend compassion toward all humans. The exercise challenged us to picture ourselves surrounded by a circle of light. This circle represents affection towards ourselves. The circle expands to family and close friends and expands to encompass the human race. This task challenged me to show compassion and empathy to those who are frustrating me, as to include them in the circle, I had to show them affection. This idea differed widely from my original perception of Stoics as cold and unemotional. Instead, Stoics believe that we are all one organism and should have rational relationships.
To practice self-discipline, I chose to run a mile at the gym every day. While running benefits my health, I aimed at improving my mental strength through Stoic ideals. I regularly work out, so running is not difficult, although I often walk the mile or run half a mile. To run a mile every day requires strong mental focus, as I do not enjoy running. The mind is stronger than the body, so while running every day is difficult for me, it was often my mind telling me I could not, and my body followed this thought process. From Tuesday-Saturday, I ran a mile in under 10 minutes successfully. This also made me appreciate that I have a body that allows me to run and use my legs, as others are not as fortunate. Even the simple activity of running is an accomplishment. Overall, the week was interesting, and mostly helped me examine my control in situations.

While I was participating in the stoicism activities for my second Week of Living Philosophically (WoLP), the concept of understanding what is in our power stood out as especially important to the philosophy.  Learning about this has been the most helpful part of my experience during my WoLP.  Learning how to adjust my actions to focus on what was under my control influenced my approach to all of the stoic meditation tasks for the rest of the week in terms of acting rationally.  This concept connects to the idea of self-control and moderation, as it guided how I moderated irrational desires and emotions throughout the week.  Emotions are not antithetical to stoicism, as they can still dictate actions in a beneficial way.  Instead, it is important to focus on rational emotions that will not lead you to excessive self-indulgence or irrational behavior that is ultimately not constructive and doesn’t positively affect any outcome in a desirable way.  This is because Stoicism is not about the absence of emotions, but rather about achieving a fulfilling and meaningful life through rational actions.  Consequently, appropriate reactions shaped my approach to the week’s activities, making me reevaluate a lot of decisions I would normally make without much thought.

I incorporated the idea of control into my morning and evening meditations.  In the morning, I would consider what was bothering me ahead of my day.  Usually, it would involve anxieties about work or other responsibilities.  I then considered what I could reasonably do in a day while accepting that I would not be able to complete everything immediately.  This helped me set priorities and focus on a few responsibilities at once, managing irrational stress and anxiety.  In the evening, I would consider if I had focused only on what I had planned to do, or whether I let myself get overwhelmed with anxieties that I couldn’t control.  Writing my thesis through this was interesting, but also helpful, as I was able to accept that other assignments would have to be completed at a later date without feeling too self-critical about this fact.  I used this method to stay focused on the task at hand.

After learning about the stoic approach to nature and the natural world, it is easy to see how misconceptions about stoicism became so popular.  Considering our place in the universe as a small part of a larger natural system can easily be misconstrued as apathy when, in reality, I think that it relates more to the stoic sense of power and controlling what we can.  Rather than acting robotically and without emotion, stoicism is about understanding our individual place in this larger system.  Following this, irrational emotions like anger and jealousy seem a lot less important in comparison.  This connects to the communal aspect of stoicism and our relationships with other people.  I understood this as recognizing that others may harbor these feelings while at the same time being able to accept this fact in a way that doesn’t interfere with your personal relationship in a negative way.  I see this as more empathetic than what I had imagined stoicism to be.  Again, I think that it is important to distinguish empathy from apathy, as this approach emphasizes understanding among friends as a way to demonstrate caring as opposed to being generally dismissive or disinterested because of a lack of care.

            Even though I had chosen Epicureanism for my week of living philosophically, I was still really interested in exploring Stoicism, and was very excited to do this activity. Going into this Stoic week, I had a very ‘stereotypical’ view of Stoicism. Having only heard or discussed the word ‘stoic’ with regards to pop culture, I had assumed that Stoicism was centered on controlling your emotions, not letting emotion get the best of you, and not outwardly expressing your emotions. While I was engaging with this week’s activities, I was surprised how much Stoicism focused on not controlling your emotions, but reflecting on, understanding, and accepting your emotions.

            One of the Stoic exercises that really stuck with me was the first exercise, considering what is and isn’t under our control. As a senior about to graduate, I have a lot of major milestones going on both now and in near future that have elements both under my control and not under my control. Right now, my most pressing concern is my thesis. I have spent and continue to spend a lot of time working on and worrying about my thesis. Framing my thesis mentally in terms of things I can and cannot control was a really helpful exercise for giving myself perspective and focusing my mental energy on the aspects of my thesis that I know I am in control of. I have spent a lot of time thinking about how my thesis will be read by other professors who aren’t my advisor. This exercise helped me gain perspective on focusing on the edits that I am in control of in my thesis, and not worry about the reactions of others outside of my control.

            Another of this week’s exercises that I found really useful was the last exercise, involving thinking about preparation for adversity. One source of anxiety in my life are the next steps of my life after I graduate. At the end of this summer, I will be moving across the country for graduate school. For me, there is a lot of anxiety in this event because of all the unknowns of moving to a new city and starting at a new university. This activity was really helpful for picturing this big event and identifying what is and isn’t under my control. Sitting for a while thinking about it also allowed me to focus in on smaller, comforting details as opposed to getting overwhelmed by too much too quickly. I really liked how this activity tied back together with the first activity.

            Overall, I enjoyed the mental exercises and structure of Stoicism. I hope to incorporate more mental fixation on what is under my control, as that was really useful for me for framing many of the major events going on in my life. However, I think I enjoyed my week of Epicureanism a little more. The Epicurean activities that forced me to stop, take a break, and focus on the little things in life were really good for my mental health, as well as the activities that got me to go outside and appreciate nature more.  

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Doing epicureanism for a week after doing stoicism was very interesting and informative. The activities from the epicurialism week were more focused on actual actions, whether it was taking a walk, looking at a painting, or taking a nap. In comparison, stoicism was mainly focused on introspection, where they reflected on writings and messages. Furthermore, stoicism included work in the morning, middle of the day, and at night. Epicureanism had the main activity throughout the day and a gratitude journal. I enjoyed the activities a lot. I found the nap and walk very helpful. On the walk, I enjoyed seeing the trees, hearing the birds chirping, and feeling the beautiful sun and temperature. Afterward, I do have a desire to go and spend time outside. I also enjoyed the nap. It was beneficial to take a mental break from work, allowing me to recharge and prepare to be more productive later. The truth and perception I found interesting as it seemed similar to other psychological solutions of helping people be in the moment and stop worrying about the future. During the truth and perception, I found that the surfaces were what I excepted. I had hot ramen, cold air conditioning, rough walls, and smooth sheets. It is interesting that both stoicism and epicurialism included solutions and activities in psychology. The main things from my gratitude journal were that I no longer have covid and enjoy time with friends. The scrapbook also had my gratitude for video games, sunsets, and my girlfriend. I also found around campus, the common room window, the trees, the art. Most of the reasons these things are in my scrapbook are sentimental or essential reasons. Overall, I think I enjoyed stoicism more than epicurialism. I enjoyed trying to accept what I could and could not control. It helped make my life more relaxed overall. I also enjoyed epicurialism, but it wasn’t as calming as stoicism was. It did help me focus on the beauty around me, though, compared to stoicism. Seeing nature and beauty in objects and people around me was fascinating. The gratitude journal is also an interesting foil to the stoicism journal. The stoicism journal helped relax and calm down on you. Compared to gratitude in general, it focused more on happy emotions and overall goodness.

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