Live Like A Stoic: 52 Exercises for Cultivating a Good Life

Method 1: Plan for things to go wrong. We’ll start this exercise by writing out a few plans for the day. Then we’ll assume that what could go wrong will.

the Stoic premeditatio’s goal is to loosen our attachment to external events in general, from something as simple as breaking your favorite cup (to use Epictetus’s example from Week 3) to the death of a loved one. Since you’re only doing this for a day, we do not recommend starting with a serious situation.

When we perceive that another person has behaved wrongly toward us, the first step is to figure out what incorrect notion led them to act as they did. We can imagine ourselves in the other person’s situation, and, by thinking about what they value, can make sense of their actions—even if we don’t agree with them—immediately squashing the rising sen

A basic tenet of Stoicism is that nobody wants to do wrong on purpose, and everyone thinks they have good reasons for their actions. But it is up to us whether to indulge our anger, which the Stoics refer to as a “temporary madness,” and likely make things even worse for both parties, or to be charitable and open-minded instead—ending up agreeing w

As the dog and the cart, so we and the universe. Things will happen that will make it impossible for us to do what we intend to do. We can either approach the unwanted situation with equanimity and do the best we can given the circumstances, or we can drag ourselves kicking and screaming. The end result will be the same, but we can spare ourselves

WEEK 6 Premeditation of future adversity

Now that you’ve listed some possibilities, choose a type of discomfort you’d like to focus on for the week. Here are some tips: Concentrate on something that happens often. Ask yourself: If you were able to wave a magic wand to make yourself completely resilient to this discomfort, would your life improve dramatically? If

set a timer for 5 to 10 minutes and write about your experience. Were you able to practice every day? If not, what obstacles did you face and how could you have overcome them? Did the hardship ease over time? How useful were the at-hand phrases you used, and could they have been improved? And, most importantly, how useful did you find this exercise

Method 2: Premeditate on others’ adversity. Now we’re shifting gears. So far this week you have focused on your own experiences. Today we’re expanding the power of premeditatio malorum to internalize the reality that you may be subject to unexpected misfortunes that happen to others.