Day 17 Waking Up, Openness & Stoicism

Today I did Day 17 and I read a passage from The Daily Stoic, by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman. The meditation took a different approach. Harris had his listeners open their eyes and begin breathing, rather than closing them. I softly stared out my window and breathed. I had a lot of anxiety, a solid seven on a scale of one to ten (ten being the highest anxiety), and by the end it was a two. Harris said it may be easier to meditate with your eyes open and I found that to be true for me. Harris had his listeners switch between having their eyes open and closed. This let us experience his new concepts for ourselves. His new concept was to think about being behind your face or inside of your head. With your eyes closed it seems like you're in your head or behind your face, but when you open your eyes that feeling dissolves because you can’t see your face or head. It helped me feel connected to my body, and it helped me understand that the only thing that changes is the context in consciousness. I’m slowly starting to understand the simple but complex concept of consciousness, and what it means to be conscious.

The Daily Stoic is a book of 366 meditations on wisdom, perseverance and the art of living, featuring new translations of teachings by Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus and Seneca. The title of the passage I read today was What Would Less Look Like? It was about how at any moment you could be left with less, and overtime, as we age, that happens. For example one day you could be robbed and have less money, and as you age you will have less mobility. To prepare ourselves for this certain fate, The Daily Stoic said to live within your means now and to get used to having/surviving on less. I think this is a very interesting idea because in our society people tend to be focused on more, but I think focusing on less gives a lot of value. Focusing on less, allows you to be more in the moment. If people are constantly pursuing more, they can never truly be happy. Happiness comes from the moment you’re in, not “when I have this, then I’ll be happy”. There was a lot of food for thought introduced today. I like having multiple sources of wisdom. I think I’m going to read a passage of The Daily Stoic every day because I like how it makes me think.