Balanced Life: 8 Stoic Principles That Will Change Your Way of Living

Our world is full of difficulties that appear daily in everyone’s life, that’s a fact. Despite these circumstances, some knowledge can help you deal with difficult times or momentary problems, whether religious beliefs or even wisdom from ancient civilizations, as is the case with stoicism.

Originated by Zeno of Citium, a man who lived in Athens around 300 years before Christ, in ancient Greece, Stoicism is a philosophy that consists of the harmony of the human being with himself, so that he harmonizes with his inner self and with the nature that surrounds him.

But how does this work in practice? Well, for Zeno, the entire Universe is in harmony, since it is one. Therefore, human beings are also one with it. Therefore, to have peace and tranquility, we just need to balance our lives with the harmony of what surrounds us.

After all, how can we apply stoicism in practical life?

Stoicism is a very broad subject and could take up pages and pages of websites – something that has already been done by some writers and scholars on the subject, such as Seneca, who has several books that address the philosophy of Stoicism.

Here, to make it easier, we will highlight 8 Stoic Principles that will help you bring this philosophy into your practical life and improve your harmony with the Universe. Follow:

1. Live in accordance with nature – this is the Stoic aim of life;
2. Live according to the 4 virtues: courage, justice, self-control and wisdom;
3. Focus on what you can control and accept what you can’t;
4. Separate things into good, bad and indifferent;
5. Take the initiative;
6. Practice misfortune – “What could possibly go wrong?”;
7. Have the concept of “love fati“as a principle of life, that is, love everything that happens to you;
8. Perception is key.

As you can see, all the Stoic principles are self-explanatory and are based on the first one: living in accordance with nature. The other principles will then help you in your daily attempts to become one with the Universe.

Each of the other principles also represents a specific teaching, but we can summarize them as: live your life and enjoy every moment of it, do not get attached to momentary difficulties or problems.

Finally, learn to appreciate what you have now without worrying about what will happen later. At the same time, don’t stop along the way thinking that what you have today is the best you can get.

Seek, innovate, learn and enjoy! When you are able to perceive the value of everything you have (including your life), you will be able to harmonize with the cosmos and find balance.