Hello, welcome to a Stoic’s Journey, a journal to track progress and post Stoic philosophy to strengthen the mind.
Feel free to comment here or read through for motivation. I would like to share what inspires me to continue to fight agaist the corruption of the mind and towards discipline and conditioning.
Stoicism values=Virtue is the only good.
wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation.
The Stoics believed that pleasure should not be pursued for its own sake, but rather as a natural consequence of virtuous actions.
“Show me who is not a slave. One is a slave to lust, another to ambition, and all are slaves to fear… no servitude is more disgraceful than that which is self-imposed.”- Seneca
Also Seneca,
"How many men train their bodies, and how few train their minds!”
Stoicism teaches the development of self-control and fortitude as a means of overcoming destructive emotions; the philosophy holds that becoming a clear and unbiased thinker allows one to understand the universal reason (logos).
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First entry, current streak 3 days. I have taken great inspiration from Marcus Aurelius, it is his statue pictured above in the title.
“You have power over your mind–not outside events realize this and you will find strength.”
-Marcus Aurelius
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I have been through many things in life, much pain and suffering. I did not survive and overcome so much to let my life wither away to pmo. It has taken away my drive and focus for too long and caused me to be complacent. Letting my finances slip into oblivion and relationships dissappear. I must fix my life by ending all addictions to pmo and media. Recovering my discipline and drive and becoming the man I was born to be.
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“Settle on the type of person you want to be and stick to it, whether alone or in company.”
-Marcus Aurelius
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Approaching day 4 of the streak. I have hopes of this streak never ending. But as we all know sometimes it can sneak up and overtake us if we are not vigilant.
“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
-Epictetus
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Approaching day 5 of the streak. I purchased a laptop today, for classes, and had many urges to use it for pmo. I made it another day nonetheless. The urges were defeated.
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Approaching day 8 of the streak. I am starting to see some of the benefits at this point. Reduced brain fog and more energy, some boost in confidence. It is a relief because the urges were strong over the past days. I feel I am making it out of this hole. I must be careful not to become too confident, many have relapsed much further along. The true difficulty will come from the flatline I believe. We shall see, but for now, I am content.
“How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?”
-Epictetus
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Relapsed on day 10… It has been a bad day because of it. I had things to do and was full of anxiety and my mind couldn’t think of anything other than more pmo. I guess this is the chaser effect. I write this post now to revisit and remind myself why I can’t do this anymore. Next time my streak is building and I feel like giving in, I will return here and remember how it is affecting me now. It is not worth it.
“Just as nature takes every obstacle, every impediment, and works around it—turns it to its purposes, incorporates it into itself—so, too, a rational being can turn each setback into raw material and use it to achieve its goal.”
-Marcus Aurelius
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Day one of the new streak, feeling strong.
“Not to assume it’s impossible because you find it hard. But to recognize that if it’s humanly possible, you can do it too.”
-Marcus Aurelius
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Five years without it. Five years without anything. All the dreams of addictions that haunted me, were simply my unwillingness to let them go. I can let this go, I will let this go. Though it is no loss, it tricks me into believing it is, in times of weakness. I have been strong before, when I had no choice. I choose to be strong now, I choose to be strong permanently. No more excuses. No more failure. It will get easier. I will recover.
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The four agreements:
1. Be impeccable with your word.
2. Do not take anything personally.
3. Do not make assumptions.
4. Always do your best.
Tomorrow’s habit’s for discipline will be:
- Wake up 7 am.
- Run 3 miles.
- Clean house.
- Study at least 3 hours.
- Read 1 hour, Don Quixote.
- No unnecessary scrolling.
- Go to bed before 11 pm.
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If an addiction made you a weak person, noone would recover. The strength is still there, it is simply being overridden by the addiction pathway. Outsmart the pathway and Outsmart the addiction. Use discipline, use strength and use intelligence. And most of all, enjoy the process, even the suffering. Embrace it, as even the hardest days are part of the road to victory. Feeling down, good! This is necessary to spark change. There’s a reason you feel down. Part chemical imbalance, which will recover, part circumstance, which will recover as well, with time. You’ve been placed in a pit and it will take hard work to climb out of. Let it begin and never end!
“This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.”
-Winston Churchill
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Approaching day 3 and having trouble focusing on anything. This is the consequences of the last relapse. I have a feeling at around a week I will start to feel like a machine again. But this will serve as a reminder of the unproductive mind due to relapse. Just getting started with nofap and seeing just how strong the effects of pmo are is all the decision I need. I never thought it caused much harm untill going 10 days without it and crashing back into its effects. Its time I take this completely seriously, the future depends on it.
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