Stoic Coffee
  • Podcast
  • Learn
  • About
  • Get in Touch

control

119 – Who is Your Master?

May 7, 2018 by Erick

“Any person capable of angering you becomes your master;

he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.”

― Epictetus

Show Notes:

• Stoics believed strongly that we are all in control of our own emotions

• One of the strongest emotions we have to deal with is anger

• From an evolutionary standpoint it seems to makes sense. We feel threatened and we respond in a way that we think will deal with the threat.

• But the thing is, fear is usually the response to a physical threat. Anger is usually response from a threat to our ego. Anger is usually what we use to try and control something that we can’t.

• When someone speaks poorly of us, or does or says something we don’t like, we’re trying to control them through anger.

• If someone is easily offended and flies off the handle at even the smallest thing, they are are trying to control others.

• But when we get angry we’re failing to control the one thing we truly can control – ourselves. We’re giving control of our emotions to someone else.

• Have you ever seen a kid do things just to get a rise out of someone? Maybe their siblings or their parents? It’s their way of trying to see if they can control the other person.

• This is why politicians like to get people angry about something. Why they choose a polarizing side on an issue. It’s about control.

• Get people angry about something and you have a lot more control over them.

• People don’t go to war because they’re happy and want to be kind to others.

• They go to war because they’re angry about something. And it may have started of being afraid of something, but was channeled into anger.

• Remember, the only thing that you can control is yourself, so it’s up to you to decide – are you the master of yourself, or are you going to give that power to anyone else that upsets you?


Photo by Peter Forster on Unsplash

Posted in: Anger, Awareness, Coffee Break, Control Tagged: anger, control, self awareness, stoicism

105 – Bring Pain To Your Enemy

April 23, 2018 by Erick

“Epictetus being asked how a man should give pain to his enemy answered, By preparing himself to live the best life that he can.”

— Marcus Aurelius

Photo by Fervent Jan on Unsplash

Posted in: Challenges, Coffee Break, Control Tagged: coffee break, control, fear, living, stoic

99 – Sparing Partner

April 17, 2018 by Erick

“A boxer derives the greatest advantage from his sparring partner – and my accuser is my sparring partner. He trains me in patience, civility and even temper.”

— Epictetus

https://anchor.fm/s/1f44fb0/podcast/play/425306/https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fanchor-audio-bank%2Fstaging%2F2018-3-17%2F99---Sparing-Partner-d55aae3c35689.m4a

Podcast (coffee-break): Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

Posted in: Coffee Break Tagged: coffee break, control, patience

Support

Enjoying the podcast? Be awesome! Support Stoic Coffee on Patreon.

Become a Patron!

Subscribe to Podcast

Listen to Stoic Coffee Break on RadioPublic

Listen on Google Play Music

Listen to Stitcher

Tags

anger awareness challenges change circumstances coffee break compassion contentment control daily practice death desire education emotions fate fault fear freedom goals happiness impressions judgments life live living love luck opinions others path patience peace perspective philosophy principles progress reflection self-judgment self-reflection self awareness stoic stoicism thinking time wisdom

Categories

  • Anger
  • Awareness
  • Challenges
  • Circumstances
  • Coffee Break
  • Control
  • Fate
  • Love
  • Opinion
  • philosophy
  • self-improvement
  • stoicism
  • Tranquility
  • wisdom

Recent Posts

  • 159 – It’s About Time
  • 158 – How To Be Alone
  • 157 – Don’t Feed the Trolls
  • 156 – What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
  • 155 – Interview with Jeff Emtman of Here Be Monsters

Archives

  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018

Copyright © 2019 Stoic Coffee.

Taste WordPress Theme by ThemeTaste