Clintonslibrary

View Original

Meditations (Short version) by Marcus Aurelius

This book has stood the test of time. Marcus Aurelius gives his outlook on the world and the set of standards every human should follow. It will shape your own view of the world, allowing you to look at it from the perspective of a Stoic.

Reading this felt like I was participating in a meditation, so the name is perfect. You have to fully focus and shut everything out but sometimes your mind will wander. It’s very calming, my mind goes a mile a minute and reading this has helped settle it.

Here are a few important lessons from it.

📚The mind is the most important thing in the universe, as long as we have that we have everything.

📚 Everything is as it should be, so be indifferent to the things you have no control over but make sure these things don’t have an effect on the things you do have control over, which is yourself.

📚 Never judging and always forgiving because what is done is done and everything happens for a reason.

📚 Everyone will die, change is inevitable so nothing really matters, do what ever you want and make the most of your time.

📚 Learn to see the good in ALL.

We all go through the same things in our mind. Time may change but in all essence a human life stays the same. This book is the perfect example of that considering it was written more than a 1000 years ago.

When you’re at the top or doing well you tend to not think about these things, but we should. The more you do think about these things, the better you’ll be able to handle the cards you’re dealt.

I’ll definitely be re-reading this regularly, it’s one of those books that you have to come back to.

Have you read this? What did you learn?