Nietzsche, Stoicism, Epiktétos, Marcus Aurelius

Love of fate. Love your fate. Amor fati is a mindset that you take on for making the best out of anything that happens. Treating each and every moment - no matter how challenging - as something to be embraced, not avoided. To not only be okay with it, but love it and be better for it.

Marcus Aurelius’s timeless wisdom: “A blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.” So that like oxygen to a fire, obstacles and adversity become fuel for your potential.

Stuff is gonna happen and it can break your hearth, it can break your spirit or you can embrace it and love it.

„Life is a game of dice. Even if you don't throw the number you like, you still have to play it and play it well.“ – Arthur Schopenhauer

„Not merely bear what is necessary but love it“ – Friedrich Nietzsche

„Do not seek for things to happen the way you want them to; rather, wish that what happens happen the way it happens: then you will be happy.“ – Epiktétos

„There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.“ – Epiktétos

„Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.“ – Epiktétos

Stoicism

Remember that you [have to] die.

A simple reminder can bring us closer to living the life we want. It doesn’t matter who you are or how many things you have left to be done, a car can hit you in an intersection and drive your teeth back into your skull. That’s it. It could all be over. Today, tomorrow, someday soon.

Every time you see the sunset, everytime you see the sunrise you should stop and remind yourself - you will never see that again. Not this specific sunrise. That's one less that you will ever get in your life. It's not that the death is in the future but that we are dying every minute.

„But here's the thing: you already have a terminal diagnosis - we all do...every person is born with a death sentence; each second that passes by is one you'll never get back.“ – Ryan Holiday

„Everything ends once.“

Stoicism

To the Stoics, the criteria for success were simple: displaying good character and doing good works. As Marcus Aurelius said: “The fruit of this life is good character and acts for the common good.“

It's about perfecting the self or working on the self so one can make bigger difference in the world. Are you working on yourself? Great, but then how are you making the difference in the world? How are you making things better? How are you contributing?  How are you being of service?

Remind yourself everyday: What's my character and what am I doing for others?

„Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.“ – Marcus Aurelius

„Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.“ - Seneca

Minimalism, Less waste

At the individual level, sustainable behavior represents conscious consumption. As responsible consumers, we should ask where the goods we buy come from, who made them, how they were made, and how to dispose of them after we no longer need them. Look for your own style instead of trends, choose quality over quantity. We should also learn to consume less. Voluntary modesty is the foundation.

We should use natural resources responsibly - the fact that water flows out of the tap as we want does not mean that we can waste it. Having enough water is still a privilege, not the norm.

„Consume less, create more, experience more.“ – Karolína Rathousová

Primal movement, Forest mind

Move. Play. Discover. Accept the power of sunshine, nature and being outdoors.

„If you don’t use it, you lose it.“

„The best dumbbell on earth is the human body.“

„In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.“ – John Muir

„A walk in nature walks the soul back home.“ – Mary Davis

„Kids around the world run around and jump on things, swing from things, sit in various positions, and move low to the earth with ease. In essence, they have very little fear. They feel safe in their bodies. When you feel safe in your body, your body allows more. More functional movement. More usable flexibility. Unfortunately, most of us lose this safety through stress. And we’ll never feel like we did when we were kids. There’s baggage that comes with getting older. But we can move back in that direction. To do this we need one important thing… Trust. Think about someone you trust… you feel safe with them. That’s the relationship we need to develop with our bodies again. This is a process that you’ll have to follow gradually. You wouldn’t expect to fully trust someone you’d just met, right? But with enough time, you can get there.“ – Josh Hash, Strength Side

„Having held any posture for a while, the best posture is always the next one. Even the most “correct” way of sitting recommended by the most prominent experts becomes uncomfortable after a while. The answer does not lie in one perfect position; rather, the key is to change positions frequently.“ – Peter Opsvik

Cooking, Fasting

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” hearkens back to Hippocrates, the father of medicine. The beauty of food as medicine is that the choice to heal and promote health can begin as soon as the next meal. 

Cook at home with basic ingredients, minimize processed foods, eat rainbow. Cooking with love provides food for the soul and the food just tastes better.

„Each patient carries his own doctor inside him.“ – Norman Cousins

„No disease that can be treated by diet should be treated with any other means.“ – Maimonides

Bruce Lee, Stoicism, Martial arts

Bruce Lee is teaching us to be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

„Empty your mind. Be formless. Shapeless. Like water. You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend.“ – Bruce Lee

„You are the creator and the interpreter of your life in every moment.“ – Bruce Lee

„Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.“ – Bruce Lee

„Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.“ – Bruce Lee

„Is someone scolding you? It goes through you. Do they praise you? This goes through you too. It goes through you and after all it's still... you.“ – Jaroslav Dušek