Something that also differentiated Stoicism from stereotypical philosophical discourse was the fact that it produces men who did rather than thought. This was <a href="http://dailystoic.com/Epictetus">Epictetus </a>' promise of philosophy. Sometimes the discussion about the meaning of life serves no purpose other than to distract you from the answer, which is found in front of you when you live life. When you wake up, <a href="http://dailystoic.com/memento-mori">pretend today is your last day </a>and live life as you would in this circumstance.

<ol>Food Is The Best Test Of Self-Control </ol>Food is the best test of self-control and temperance because it's presented to us every single day and in the modern world at any hour of the day. Musonius Rufus was a Roman Stoic philosopher who in his two part discourse on food said: "That God who made man provided him food and drink for the sake of preserving his life and not for giving him pleasure, one can see very well from this: when food is performing its real function, it does not produce pleasure for man, that is in the process of digestion and assimilation."

To practice this principle one can eat plain foods without sauces or try intermittent fasting. <ol>Failure Is Natural, Regret Is Foolish </ol><a href="http://dailystoic.com/Marcus-Aurelius">Marcus Aurelius </a>was emperor of Rome. His untitled writing, commonly known as Meditations is an important source of Stoic philosophy. "The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way." He means that everything, no matter whether it is good or bad is an opportunity to practice virtue.

Don't be surprised by failure, expect it, in fact, embrace it and seek after obstacles in your life which seem uncomfortable. It is here where your character will be tested and most importantly moulded and developed. The Stoics <a href="https://dailystoic.com/premortem/">called negative visualisations </a>the premeditation of evils. The idea is to envision the worst possible scenario. An example could be twisting your ankle before you run. Assimilate this idea into your daily actions and you will be rewarded.

Epictetus is famous for what he called the dichotomy of control which describes what is in our control. We can apply this to failure. The moment you start to regret something in the past you're fundamentally acting against something which is out of your control and so there's no practical reward from doing so only frustration and anger. We should learn from the past and our failures, but to regret, to ponder and to revisit our previous attempts and then look at present with disdain is a crime to your character.

Below is a guest post from Philip Ghezelbash, as he offered to share five of the most important lessons he took away from Stoicism. Enjoy! *** Live Every Day As If It Were Your Last Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher. He once said: "You live as if you were destined to live forever, no ...

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The Philosophy Of Stoicism: Five Lessons from Seneca, Musonius Rufus, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus and Zeno of Citium.

Tamara L Richardson-Walker