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Tag: Stoicism

Cultivating a Mindfulness and Meditation Routine

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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Book Review: Tom Miles – 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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Book Review: Marcus Aurelius – Meditations

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

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 

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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