Meditations

Taking inspiration from the book Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - which is really just a collection of his personal philosophical thoughts. They were not meant to be published. Only to serve as reminders to himself, to be written once and read multiple times. In that spirit, I have collected my own thoughts for the same purpose. And in the spirit of his meditations being published, I have published my own here. Maybe someone will find them thought-provoking.

• The artificial will always be inferior to the natural. Art imitates nature, not the other way around. Gazing upon upon an image of a beautiful landscape will always be inferior to going out and seeing one for yourself. Watching a video of people doing amazing things will always be inferior to doing them for yourself.
• Be a leader not a commander. If you tell someone they should do something. They will say "Fuck you. Who are you to tell me what to do?". And they are right. It's not in your place to tell anyone what to do. Everyone is really free to do whatever they want to do. And what evidence do people have that doing what you suggest they do will have a positive impact on them? Instead, the only way to have any influence on others is to lead by example. Let people see you doing something and let them observe the positive affects it has. Only then will they have a chance of following in your footsteps. If you complain about someone being a whiny complainer, then you are being one too. There is so much irony to be had in bossing people around
• Mentality / Mindset is super important. A lot of problems people have really come down to mindset, and perceptions. Perceptions they have about themselves, or the world. Self perception can cause a negative feedback loop that causes you to act like your perceived self. Having a strong belief you are depressed will prime you to being depressed, thinking you are shy will prime you to act shy. You can also escape a lot of the things that are unpleasant by discarding them (to a degree) like anxiety, real fear, lack of ambition etc… because they are within you, they are perception, they are not external to the world
• Life is so noisy. There are a million things going on, to think about, including your past, your future, thoughts, hypotheticals. To a certain degree all that crap should be cut out. Marcus Aurelius quote: "If you can cut yourself-your mind-free of what other people do and say, of what you've said or done, of the things that you're afraid will happen, the impositions of the body that contains you and the breath within, and what the whirling chaos sweeps in from outside, so that the mind is freed from fate, brought to clarity, and lives life on its own recognizance-doing what's right, accepting what happens, and speaking the truth-"
• You have the power. You have the power to reach for your goals no matter the challenges nature has given you. You are responsible for your restfulness and your own life.
• Become a better person. Taking new challenges, Push yourself, break yourself down and build yourself up, be resilient, do not wane against aversion. Courtesy and kindness define a man, not being an angry whiner. Anger is an emotion, so lashing out in anger is losing control of your emotions. True good fortune is what you make for yourself.
• Use your drive to motivate you. Drive is having the drive to achieve what you want to in life. Get life's full experience. Keep this in mind. Give your goals your best shot while you’re young because you won’t be able to when you’re old. There are things you want to do before you do. Do them.
• Build strong habits. Don't loose brain power deciding to do things. Make it a habit and just do it.
• You can be you but you'll never be me. Other people may be better than you in regards to certain things. That's OK. Be genuinely happy for them, and learn from them if you want to. Don't feel bad. They aren't you. They haven't lived the life you've lived. You are better than them in regards to other things. Find solace in the fact that they will never be you. Only you can be you.
• Your psychology needs to be protected and nurtured. This doesn't make you weak. This is just part of being human. Mindlessly scrolling on TikTok and giving in to instant gratification for example will damage your psyche. Certain things can send the wrong signals to your brain like using video games as an escape from reality for example
• Enjoy the moment. Be in this moment. Focus on the right now. On what you are doing. All life is-is a series of moments. So enjoy them. Life is short, time is vast, matter is fragile. Do not let yourself be caught in a mindset "That I need to attain X" before I can be happy. Journey before destination.
• Act with intention with everything you do, because you have the power to. You don't need to do anything you don't want to. It's a choice. Did you really decide to do this because you wanted to? or are you a zombie acting on defaults? Is what you're doing really beneficial. Being creative and making something is the opposite of hanging out. Do not distract yourself from things. Give them your full focus, and if you cannot, something is wrong and you should correct this or the activity may not be worth doing.
• Reject what does not serve you, embrace what does
• Do not run away from unpleasant things. Wasting your time, and damaging your own mind and body by drowning out negative feelings will not get you to your goals. It will not lead to happiness. Abandon escapism and follow things that you are passionate about. In fact, embrace emotions (even negative ones), and use them as fuel to do amazing things. Are you alive to feel good, or to do and experience things?
• Optimism over pessimism. There is so much good about yourself and about life, why skew your vision by focusing on the negatives. No growth or change has ever come from pessimism. Do not focus solely on your defaults, you have virtues too. If something can get worse, it can get better. Why destroy your own confidence by only focusing on your negatives, why ruin life's experiences by only focusing on the negative aspects of it. Don’t think you are inferior to people because of your “insecurities” that other people don’t have. You are great. There are so many other redeeming aspects to you that a lot of people don’t have. Appreciate your successes. Recognize the improvements to your past self. Do not let your failures hide your successes. Appreciate the things you do have instead of constantly pining over the things you don't have. It is OK to fail. If you do, do not dwell on it. Learn from it, and move on
• If it is, it is right. Everything follows it's destiny, the course of logical determinism. So don't stress too much
• People need not be treated equally. They should be treated as they deserve.
• Life is the persueal of beauty
• Humans are social animals. They need real human connection. But self-esteem and confidence is a big part of this. Love is not a race. Having a support group is very important. Just act natural when it comes to connecting with other people. Everyone else is like you and just wants connection and love
• All hate stems from self hatred.
• Don't act shy around people. It gives the impression to yourself and to them that they are better than you. Which they are not. Be confident, in public and in private. Do not waste fear on trivial matters, save it for the things that really matter.
• All things are born from change
• Don't expect anything from helping people. Real people do good things for the sake of it. Not because of some imagined higher power keeping them in check, or belief in karma or whatever
• Sun don't shine in the shade. Bird can't fly in a cage..
• The best revenge is not to be like that.
• Being more productive is not about time management, it's about energy management. So do the things that give you energy not drain them in your downtime. Learn the things that drain your energy, and the things that give you energy.
• Believe in yourself. Have faith in yourself. Be confident. Don't limit yourself with false perceptions. "I can't do X, I can't do Y". Think about it for a second. Maybe you can. If you don't believe in yourself in the first place, for sure you won't accomplish anything. Have a growth mindset instead of a fixed one. Don't be afraid of having goals or visions. Don't lie to yourself and say something is impossible when it isn't. Don't make impossibility an excuse for laziness. Trust in your own nature. No matter the person you become, it was inside you all along
• Telling the truth is crazy in a world full of lies. We love ourselves more than others, but more about their opinions than our own.
• Nothing can hurt you. Nothing can hurt you, because it's all perception. The only thing that can harm you are negative perceptions of what is happening to you. Forgive people for acting out of ignorance. In the end they haven't really hurt you. When there is no enemy inside, the enemy outside can do us no harm. What imaginary doors have you closed in your mind? I am vulnerable. I am in the real world. I am affected by experience and biology. But at the same time I am the master of my own self, emotions, and self-perception. Nothing can happen to me that isn't natural. Nothing and no once can force me to do anything. We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.. Do not be bothered by what other people do, it is their problem. Stop catastrophizing, you've suffered no disgrace. The torturer only harms himself. The only harm that can come onto me is from myself. If others wish to blackmail me by causing chaos, ignore them, so be it. External things cannot harm you. The thoughts and even actions of others cannot harm you.