Sandy Cosmopolitan

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How to become a Stoic

Stoicism was founded by Zeno of Citium around 301 BC and later it became popular in ancient Rome. Famous Stoics are Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. If you want to learn more about stoicism, start with Epictetus “The Encheiridion”.

So today, I’ve been trying to practice some Stoicism, which isn’t that easy as I thought it would be. First and foremost, Stoics differentiate between what’s in our control and what’s not. For example, wealth, reputation, health is not in our control, but our actions, beliefs, our behaviour are. We should develop some kind of indifference towards things which are not in our control. Then you’ll have to practice awareness (prosochē) – being aware of the here and now. The past is gone, the future doesn’t matter, only the present is important. Well then, I started out with determining “virtues” (aretḗ). Such virtues could be patience, honesty ..., you name it . In order to succeed in becoming the person, I wish to be, it doesn’t suffice to determine virtues, however, the most important thing is practice. We need to practice every day and slowly move on towards our goals, step by step. If we want it all at once, we’ll fail. Our brain is like a well frequented path – the more we think in certain manners, the deeper the tracks. The good news is, that we can overwrite the well frequented path and slowly turn it into something new and more healthy for our mental well-being. Hence, practice is key if we want to achieve our set goals.  

While practicing, some objections popped up: How to achieve indifference towards something which is not in my control and nonetheless completely upsets me? Or do I become a totally indifferent person who doesn’t care for the happiness of others? If nothing upsets me, do I get engaged in politics or do I even want to change anything for the better in society?

[sandycosmopolitan]

I love a green touch for spring! It goes perfectly well with black - a black dress, black leather pants or a long black dress with a short green leather jacket! Perfect for a day in the museum or a shopping day! Moreover, green is the color of hope, of optimism and assurance that all’s well that ends well. Eventually, we all need some optimism these days, aren’t we! Why not start with the respective outfit!

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Intro

I am Sandy Cosmopolitan, the prototypical woman for my generation: academic background, own business, multilingual, citizen of the world, interested in the arts, in literature and philosophy, I lead a rather affluent life style, live in a penthouse with my family, love travelling and I am interested in fashion and life style in general. This intended blog is about all the topics, which are central to my life. It’ll supposed to be a mixture of fashion with design, supplemented by philosophy and the arts. Let’s get started.