Simple Stoic Advice
Body and Mind
Body and Mind
The beautiful thing about Stoic philosophy is the advice contained within it is just as applicable today as it was when it was first written all those many years ago. We can learn a great deal from interpreting the advice provided and using it to our advantage as we go throughout our own lives.
Today’s quote comes to us courtesy of Epictetus, Enchiridion, entry 41:
Quote
“It is a mark of an ungifted man to spend a great deal of time in what concerns his body, as in much exercise, much eating, much drinking, much evacuating of the bowels, much copulating. But these things are to be done in passing; and let your whole attention be devoted to the mind.”
Advice
The Stoics believed that the chief good in life was the pursuit of philosophical wisdom as this helped lead one to the path of a virtuous life. The Stoics believed that keeping one’s body in shape by way of physical exercise and diet was important, but not nearly as important as the pursuit of wisdom.
Here, Epictetus reminds his students that these tendencies to diet and exercise should be second to the pursuit of philosophical wisdom. This is not to say that the pursuit of strengthening the body through diet and exercise is not important. On the contrary, one could argue that the mental toughness built from these things is beneficial.
But the Stoics believed in appropriate balance of actions.
Today, the pursuit of a perfect body can distract from the pursuit of philosophical learning, but more important, can be tied to external things. For example, many people today attempt to lose weight and exercise because they want people to see them as attractive. This unfortunately sets up validation through other people which one, no matter how hard they try, may never actually receive from another.
It is best to pursue a proper course of exercise and diet while at the same time, pursuing the course of wisdom. If one begins, however, to attach the pursuits of either the body or the mind to the validation of others, one should immediately check themselves and be reminded of the needed for indifference to the external.
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