This 10-minute video offers 10 of the most important insights for happiness from the writings of Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor and devout student of the philosophy of Stoicism.
10 Important Insights for Happiness
1. Seek to build your own character
2. Stop seeking the praise of other people
3. Focus only on what you have control over and ignore the rest
4. Do Something Productive With Your Anger
5. Negative emotions are a result of negative thinking
6. Be Prepared for Any Outcome and Act with resilience
7. Be Insanely Grateful for what you have
8. Tolerance is in not judging
9. The peace you need is in you
10. Appreciate the shortness of life
The video’s producer writes, “Even though it is over 2000 years old, more and more people are discovering how Stoicism is not only relevant to modern times, but can be applied in very simple, yet strong ways.”
Note: Although a dictionary definition of stoicism is “the endurance of pain or hardship without a display of feelings and without complaint,” Stoicism, the ancient Greek school of philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early 3rd century BC, taught that “virtue, the highest good, is based on knowledge, and that the wise live in harmony with the divine Reason (also identified with Fate and Providence) that governs nature, and are indifferent to the vicissitudes of fortune and to pleasure and pain.”