I stumbled across his essay published online and while it's very late, 'preachy' Tolstoy, and he'd hate how we talk about addiction today, lots of what he writes still resonates.

The line that stuck with me: 'A sober man is ashamed to steal or lie, a drunk man isn't, so if you want to do what your conscience forbids, you stupefy yourself first.'

He argues that we all carry around this gap between how we actually live and how we know we should live, and that gap is uncomfortable to sit with.

Has anyone else read the essay?

“We’ve each formed habits about how we respond to events. If someone insults us, we automatically believe that we are harmed. If we lose something, we immediately react like we’ve been injured. But we have not been hurt by the world, but our interpretation of it.
To change this we must separate events from our judgments about them and reprogram our mental habits. “ - Stoa app

Hello I’m new stoicism and trying to understand the texts. The way I interpret this is… that means don’t add any feelings or thoughts to the event that just occurred. Then how do we even able to discern what things actually hurt us or even matter to us? What does it really mean? If we are emotionally neutral how do we even discern what things are worth of our time and redirect our focus?

I've learnt something very important today thanks to a stoicism podcast.

It likely explains the reason why I feel so incredibly sad and like I'm not moving forward after my break up.

All this time I've been secretly holding onto hope without realising it's basically the same currency as fear.

I'm holding myself prisoner, hoping for a miracle, but all its doing is constantly reminding me of what I'm fearful of.

Severing the hope is now my goal.

Sorry if this sounds muddled. Maybe it'll make sense to someone.

I've learnt something very important today thanks to a stoicism podcast.

It likely explains the reason why I feel so incredibly sad and like I'm not moving forward after my break up.

All this time I've been secretly holding onto hope without realising it's basically the same currency as fear.

I'm holding myself prisoner, hoping for a miracle, but all its doing is constantly reminding me of what I'm fearful of.

Severing the hope is now my goal.

Sorry if this sounds muddled. Maybe it'll make sense to someone.