4 Easy Tips To Live a Breezy & Untroubled Life From Marcus Aurelius

Live the life of Riley.

Growing up, Marcus Aurelius learned Greek and Latin as a teenager. But Stoicism meddled with his mind.

• Stoicism: A philosophical concept that maximizes positive emotions, reason, and self-restraint.

According to Stoicism, our thoughts dovetail with our lives. External factors play a tiny role.

Marcus Aurelius opted for Stoic methods to think clearly and end his futile mental chaos. Marcus believed that in the long run, we can master (thoughts and actions).

To live clear-cut life, Marcus Aurelius has provided a framework of valuable quotes for everyone.

So, let’s get started.

1. Same sides of the coin

• Upon our birth, we’re gifted a pure soul and mind.

Little by little, life add colors to our souls and mind. By age 20, we don’t have the same “pure-white” heart and soul. With the appearance of negative thoughts, our soul gets darker. And with positive thoughts, our soul remains light.

Marcus Aurelius believes:

“The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.”

Our perception of everything boils color to our soul. It’s not the outside events that affect us, it’s the war inside us.

We’re stuck with the same soul *throughout* our life.

Means that if we have to remain with the same soul throughout, isn’t it nice to be on good terms with it?

Life is beautiful if you believe. Life is also barren, if you believe.

“Our perspective decides the outcome. A positive perspective allows us to open up and see opportunity instead of oppression.”

— Nicolas Cole, Editor-in-Chief of Digital Press.

Marcus Aurelius suggests having good quality thoughts. Having a clear mindset helps with enduring tough situations.

Only the weakest minds make decisions in the thick of the situation. Keep in mind that your whole life forward depends on one (single) decision you make.

Your life is only a decision apart.

Use it wisely.

2. Live for joyful moments

Take a deep breath:

• After waking up
• And:

“Say to yourself first thing in the morning: today I shall meet people who are meddling, ungrateful, aggressive, treacherous, malicious, unsocial. All this has afflicted them through their ignorance of true good and evil.”

— Marcus Aurelius

Regardless of your plans, always remember that humans are the most confusing creatures.

Sometimes we get tied into problems we didn’t even create. It’s okay. Because we only get one life. If we let someone ruin it for us, we’d never explore the true flavor.

Facing Dream Reality Confusion (DRC) disorder, I’m often confused about events that occurred to me.

Waking up each morning, my head hurts when I accidentally try to remember happenings. Because of DRC, my bad memories are flushed behind my brain. It strains when I want to fetch them back.

We all have that toilet inside our brains where we can flush down our bad memories. This way, we can focus on good ones.

• Because life is too short to waste.

3. Embrace the blessings

Marcus Aurelius, Plato, and Aristotle never lived in a world of technology.

Hence they believed the future had more to come.

I sometimes ask myself: would they even be Stoics if they lived right through the 21st century?

Today, with so much technology and everything right in our hands, we’ve forgotten the real spice of hard work and happiness.

Marcus Aurelius believes:

“What a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love.”

Every day is a privilege — a gift from the universe.

Difficulties are part of our lives, and everybody gets a shared proportion. You cannot escape troubles.

• But you can count your blessings.

“An average human walks through 16 murders in a lifetime.”

— Buzzfeed writer, Anna Kopsky.

What if an arrow that slightly twisted 3 inches on the right and stabbed you in the front?

What if?

Means that we’re always nearest to failing. With each birthday, we’re celebrating our demise to come.

But looking at it with positivity, we’re blessed every moment. Our lives have given us all the ingredients: mind, home, friends, family, health, and the ability to love.

Now it’s our task to use those ingredients and make brownies topped with sprinkles.

4. Focus on today

We’re often confused when making a decision, like:

• Should I?
• I mean, what will people say?
• I am better than this
• But I want to

The above listicles are a sign of non-mental clarity (Brain Fog). I am often baffled when taking even the slightest decision I care about most. Once I read Marcus Aurelius’ quote:

“Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday.”

With each passing dawn, we lose the chance to do something phenomenal. For example:

…you want to apply to Harvard. Each day, you’re losing the momentum and time to apply.

(The late applicator gets the late response.)

When applying, things are already not in our hands. Then why do we lose so much time thinking when we had all our lives to think?

Other than general financial circumstances, some people lose interest in making decisions.

What you have to do, today is the right time.

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift.”

— Master Oogway, Kung Fu Panda.

What you wanted to do is gone.

What you want to do is unclear.

So, do it today.

• If it’s unfit for tomorrow and yesterday’s (bracket), the answer is “today.”

Final Thoughts:

Life is all about the journey and less about the destination — states Ralph Waldo Emerson.

These life lessons serve as a framework to live a merry, blessed life. Because the destination might be a one-story house, the journey is walking barefoot from New York to Cape Town.

That’s why we’re strong. Of course, for the storms.

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