There always seems to be a gap between one’s current state and a future, imagined happiness. One way to eliminate that gap is by continually chasing things you want. But this solution provides ephemeral results. Why? There is always another conquest as the chasm of desire gapes back open. 

The other method of eliminating the gap is the focus of today’s meditation: you concentrate on wanting what you already have. As you contemplate the preciousness of what you have, you will notice how your appreciation for it swells and gratitude wells up from inside of you.

You are living what appears to be your own unique life. So it’s only natural for you to be connected to and absorbed in your subjective conscious experience of the world. But today’s practice tears you away from your own subjectivity. 

When you put yourself in someone else’s proverbial shoes, you begin to see life as abundant and not scarce. And through noticing these things, a resplendent notion is slowly unveiled: you are living a dream life.  

Eventually, in life, you will do something for the last time. It could be quotidian – like the last time you drive a car or make a cup of coffee. It could also be the last time you talk to a friend or parent. Doing something for the last time elicits presence: you savor the experience, and you become grateful for the miracle of life’s smallest gifts. 

Typically, nostalgia is reserved for the past, a sentimental longing for a place, period, or specific event. But what if instead of melancholically reminiscing about that trip to Italy, we had nostalgia for the moment we are currently living?

The practice of present time nostalgia enables us to appreciate the present moment in the present moment. It punctuates life with pleasure and elicits both a sense of awe and gratitude for life’s daily gifts.

When you feel angry, YOU are the one experiencing the discomfort. The instigator of your anger isn’t. You cannot change the past deeds of others, but you can influence the future by taking action within your own life in the present moment. 

You’ve likely engaged in this thought experiment: What would you do if you only had six months to live? What relationships would you mend? What new experiences would you try? 

Meditating on your mortality helps create priority, meaning, perspective, and urgency. Death doesn’t make life pointless but rather purposeful. The reminder that someday we will die can bring us closer to living the life we want.  

In cognitive reappraisal, you find the space to rigorously examine the nature of an event prior to levying judgment or being overwhelmed by the salience of an emotion. It allows you to press the pause button on your emotional life and leverage the prefrontal cortex, the locus of rationality in the brain, as a tuning fork for the truth.

Your attachment should never be to your opinion; you should only crave the truth. And the truth is rarely discovered amidst the indignation you can feel when your views are challenged.

When you let go of the importance of being right, you no longer implicitly seek confirmation bias to fill your ego’s needs. You become more open-minded and less loud. When challenged, you listen and respond with questions and then assess with discernment the validity of another’s opinion. 

Stoicism celebrates the development of resilience through subjection to adversity. Exposure to insult and ridicule builds up mental resistance such that, in the face of it, one becomes indifferent.

A central tenet of Stoicism is the acknowledgment that you don’t control the world around you. You can only control how you respond. And your response to the course of human events should be guided by four primary virtues: wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation. This meditation is an introductory exploration of these core Stoic virtues.