Meditations by Marcus Aurelius: The Timeless Stoic Philosophy

Meditations on Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

This book matters more now than perhaps any other point in history. There’s a lot about modern life that we can’t control, like political turmoil and social media outrage and economic uncertainty. We definitely can’t control other people’s opinions about anything, including ourselves. But Meditations teaches us (or reminds us) that we can be in control of our reactions and our habits, as well as our character and our priorities.

The age of social media only makes that kind of approach all the more important. We’re constantly being bombarded by push notifications and breaking news and chat dings and new emails. There is so much demand for our limited attention, and keeping Meditations (both the book and the noun) in mind can help alleviate our anxiety.

It’s also helpful when Marcus reminds up to not care too much about what other people thing. We’re always scrolling through social media and observing the greatest hits of people’s lives, and we’re always carefully curating moments of our own lives to post on social media for others. It’s a never-ending yearning for public approval, chasing likes and hearts and followers and comments that validate our existence.

Marcus also understood that being successful isn’t a surefire way to be happy. Dude was basically the most powerful man in the whole world, but Meditations definitely talks about how fleeting and temporary wealth and power and fame is, and how we’re all going to die, anyway, so it’s your integrity and virtue that will most make up your happiness. In an age where influencers cultivate online identities and companies cultivate brands for audiences, we should be cultivating ourselves for ourselves by taking on virtues like honesty and humility.

Marcus’s endorsement of Stoicism can be helpful in our own approach to stress and anxiety. A lot of good therapists will teach you to further examine your own irrational thoughts so you can separate your emotions from the real, intangible facts and not catastrophize or hold grudges or waste time complaining.

When Marcus Aurelius was writing down the text that make up this book, he wasn’t trying to get published and be seen as some ground-breaking philosopher who blew everybody’s mind with his wisdom. He was just doing what a lot of therapists and self-care content tell us to do: journal. And Marcus wasn’t writing about all the war and plagues and political stuff that was happening to him, he was just trying to control his thoughts and his reactions to them.

Meditations endures 2,000 years later because in addressing his own thoughts, Marcus Aurelius was addressing the human condition.

Click on the cover to buy Meditations by Marcus Aurelius!

Cover Image Credit: Background cover image of Hegra monumental inscription dedicated to Marcus Aurelius is per Wikimedia Commons. The original cover image of The Portrait of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland is also part of the public domain per Wikimedia Commons.

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