Search Results for: Stoicism

Book Review: Tom Miles – Stoicism

My Perspective  If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll see that ancient philosophy, and Stoicism in particular, re-occurs every so often. The fundamental reason is because we live in a world of so many inputs, one of the biggest being people’s desire to have and do more to keep their social media image suitably maintained. Stoicism reminds us to remember we are all human, that having material wealth is out of our control and should not impact our emotion, and also to equip ourselves for when bad events occur. This is particularly important given the festive excess many…

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Cultivating a Mindfulness and Meditation Routine

Introduction The terms mindfulness and meditation are very popular at the moment, and this can clearly be seen in the rise of mobile apps such as Headspace, Calm, Buddhify and The Mindfulness App. However, there are many things which hit the mass conscious and are quickly forgotten or proven to be fakes, so for a long time I was sceptical. Two things quickly showed me that my scepticism was perhaps unfounded: The concept of meditation and mindfulness has been around…

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Reviewing 2017 & Planning 2018

  Introduction  This won’t be yet another New Year’s Resolution blog post, I’m sure your sick of reading or hearing about them by now.   I don’t like making New Year’s Resolutions, primarily because it often feels like people make them purely to break them! Often people know they need to make a change but don’t really want to, therefore proclaim to everyone that it will be their New Year’s Resolution, so that no-one is surprised – and the individual isn’t disappointed – when they give…

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Benefits of a Scottish Shower

Introduction Having a daily hot shower is a habit that is almost universally shared in developed countries and something most of us have never thought about, but it is normal to turn on the hot tap when you get into the shower? For the majority of human existence having a hot shower was abnormal, primarily because it isn’t necessary and it was very costly and time consuming to warm the water only to throw it over you for a couple…

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Book Review: Marcus Aurelius – Meditations

My Perspective There are few more famous books that Marcus Aurelius’ ‘Mediations’, it was written as a series of spiritual exercises and the common belief was that it would never to be published. For me it is the inner dialogue of an extremely powerful and rich man – the Emperor of Rome –  trying to fight the same battles that we all face on a daily basis: how to be a better person, how to show courage, be just, be clever and…

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The Power of Perception

Introduction  During my recent reading around the topic of Stoicism, I came across the now famous ‘The Obstacle is the Way‘ by Ryan Holiday. If you recognise the title but haven’t read it, that might be because it has been made famous by its rapid spread across American sporting teams. For example, on the way to winning the 2014 Super Bowl a copy of the book was given to each of the players and staff of the New England Patriots….

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Book Review: Alain de Botton – Consolations of Philosophy 

  Introduction I have always had an interest in philosophy and took a few modules on the subject at university. I was even tempted at one stage to take philosophy as part of my degree, but I chose not to because I was turned-off by how disconnected it had become from the real world. Looking back over the centuries, philosophy was a pursuit to help people understand the world around them and how to achieve happiness and success in life,…

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