A Handbook Of Simple Eternal Ideas To Improve Your Life Today
These ancient concepts can navigate envy, boredom, depression, and help find purpose
In my martial arts classes we trained things repeatedly until we built up a muscle memory. This was for two purposes: it saved time in stressful situations and allowed us to think ahead while our body handled the present.
This freed our minds to recognize opportunities and dangers, then chart a course.
About 2,000 years ago, the Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius mentioned something similar. In Robin Waterfield’s translation of Marcus’ diary, Meditations, the historian states:
“In an exercise he learned from Epictetus, Marcus frequently urged himself to have his core concepts readily available for consultation, and to keep them pithy and memorable, so that they can strike his mind with their original force.”
In a way, the philosopher was building mental muscle memory to deal with the stresses of everyday life. Like the body reacting to a physical attack, the mind could be primed to deal with emotional struggle, personal hardship, and loss. All that was required was “pithy and memorable” concepts to call on.
With the overwhelming speed of our modern world, it’s needed again today. We also have an added benefit. Many of these concepts have already been defined and thought out by cultures and great minds over the ages.
In fact, they’ve been narrowed down to easy-to-remember concepts, which can be used as a quick handbook to recognize and deal with envy, boredom, depression, and find purpose. The list comprises of just five phrases.
Acedia
Meraki
Mempsimoiria
Sua Sponte
Amor Fati
Consider the five a mixture of offense and defense. Sua Sponte and Meraki will help you attack the darkness which can surround you and blast it with a light of purpose. While Acedia, Mempsimoiria, and Amor Fati will identify trouble, so you can shield yourself.
We’ll start with something we’re all familiar with, boredom. Acedia encompasses this, but it’s much more.
Acedia: Human Rust
Rust is a chemical reaction that feeds on iron-based metals. It slowly chews them apart, and spreads like cancer. If left go, rust will spread, eating away at metal until its structural integrity is gone, and it crumbles to dust.
Our soul and inner being can deteriorate the same way. While you may know the term “burn out,” many refer to this human corrosion as “rust out.” According to Hannah Fox at Harper’s Bazaar:
“The hallmarks of rust-out are all-too familiar: feeling uninspired and uninterested, as a result of not enough stimulation and connection. It might manifest in a lack of impetus to tackle projects with the same energy, an irritation with colleagues, or just feeling that your day-to-day has become mundane.”
Although the early founders of the Christian Church called it Acedia, and became well familiar with it.
In her article in Atlas Obscura, Kelsey Kennedy says early devotes to the Church moved to the deserts of Egypt in third and fourth century AD, becoming monks. The solitude was meant to help them pray and focus. But it did something else.
One of the monks, Evagrius of Pontius, put together a list of “eight principal vices,” which eventually became the seven deadly sins. Acedia was the last, and most troubling.
Its etymology is derived from the Greek and means a “lack of care.” For the monks, it was a certain fatigue that drove them from doing what they truly should be doing in that moment — prayer, self-reflection, and worship.
It not only took the form of laziness, but busyness that you performed intentionally to avoid doing what must be done. Kennedy mentions Evagrius called acedia “the last of the sins to conquer,” and only doing so would bring one closer to God.
In an interview on the AOM Podcast, Professor of Philosophy Kevin Hood Gary says many try and cure Acedia with mindless entertainment or harmful things. But this existential boredom needs more. It needs an activity which takes you away from the human rust producing grind, engaging your mind and soul.
This is where the second concept in our list is useful.
Meraki: Passionate Creativity
“Meraki (µεράκι): to do something with complete passion and love, usually associated with a task or creative endeavor.”
— India Doyle, Culture Trip
Humanity has always searched for meaning, often fruitlessly crossing the world to search. But the ancient Greeks found it close to home. Their solution didn’t require money, or any technology that would wow us, like AI.
They realized humans are creators by nature and are most fulfilled when doing just that.
The Greeks found this lost meaning in meraki (may-rah-kee) or passionate creativity. Think of the concept of “labor of love,” but deeper because the “labor” isn’t considered laborious.
Even if this activity is difficult, you find happiness and meaning in it. You put a piece of yourself within. So, this creativity fills the vacuum, acting like a special coating reflecting any human rust which adheres.
Professor Angus Fletcher in his book Wonderworks says Aristotle and his teacher Plato mentioned certain activities had special powers to raise people above the mundane world. They called them “soul lifters.”
While Plato thought only philosophy and reason could do it, Aristotle saw it in Greek theater. The tragedy, drama, and comedy filled the audiences there with wonder, and lifted their souls. Not to mention the performers.
Great amphitheaters were created all over, most actors performed for little to no money, and audiences filled the stone seats. Likewise, the ancient Greeks created the Olympics, singing competitions, poetry, and art.
All were forms of meraki that raised them above the daily grind, lifting their souls. What’s more, it still works today. Although we might envy someone while their souls are being lifted, and that’s where our third concept comes in.
Mempsimoiria: Overwhelming Desire For Another’s Life
In How To Be Content, Steven Harrison says the ancient Roman poet Horace often discussed a Greek word “mempsimoiria.” It means unhappiness with one’s lot in life, and desire for another’s.
Presently we spy other’s vacations, cars, and amazing significant others on social media, and they make our lives look crappy in comparison. So, we desire what we see. Horace says in his time, it worked much the same way.
People wanted a glittering life of prominence living in Rome. But Horace said this came with struggle and chaos, which no one saw; therefore, there were hidden tradeoffs for the glamor.
The Stoic philosopher Epictetus preached a similar message, although in his opinion, everything was a tradeoff. Nothing came for free.
For instance, the previously mentioned Olympics couldn’t be won without submitting your desires to the will of your trainer. Expect to get dirty, bruised, and put in long hours for victory. It’s the tradeoff.
In How To Be Free, Anthony Long’s translation of Epictetus’ Enchiridion, the philosopher tells us not to be fooled by appearances.
Epictetus reminds us to “be careful never to be carried away by the impression and judge the person to be happy,” when you see a shining life you wish was yours. You don’t know what they’ve traded for that position or the possible cracks behind the image.
Also, don’t “expect to get an equal share of the things that are not up to us without doing the same things others have done.” Therefore, when that twinge of envy comes, think: am I willing to do or suffer what that person did? There could be a better purpose for me.
This is where our fourth concept lands.
Sua Sponte: Fixing Your World By Your Own Accord
Many times it feels like life is purposeless and we’re moved around by fate. We’re born in a world of problems. Plus, many of these issues are things that have nothing to do with us.
Like wind pushes trash — tossed away by another — in our path, we look with disdain at the debris. Our minds protest the disorder, yet our bodies do nothing. After all, it’s not our trash, and we didn’t create the problem.
But this attitude only makes “the” world, and “our” world worse.
It leads to chaos.
It takes our agency and choice away.
It makes us puppets to fate.
In a recent interview, Admiral William McRaven described the Army Ranger’s motto: Sua Sponte. Its Latin translation is “of your own accord,” and McRaven says it means to do what must be done without waiting to be told.
He says the actions of Medal of Honor winner Ralph Puckett sum it up. During the Korean war, this Ranger drew fire from enemy positions four or five times, so they could be identified. No one told Puckett to do this, but it had to be done, so he just did it.
Sua Sponte doesn’t require sacrificing your life though, it can be expressed in the mundane. Each of us can fix small disorders in the world around us by our own accord. It makes our lives better, plus gives us agency and purpose.
Both Epictetus and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl spent time as prisoners. Each believed freedom exists in your mind. No matter if you’re stuck, impoverished, or at the will of another, you always have a choice of how to think and react. I’ve experienced this personally.
About ten years ago, I cleaned up the basement at our family business, tossed out trash, set up shelving, and made a parts room because someone had to do it. No one would move, so I did it.
This was less frustrating than complaining, created order out of disorder, and gave me a sense of agency. Moreover, everyone can do this. All that’s needed is to address the disorder around us by our own accord.
However, there will always be some things out of our control. This is the space for our last concept.
Amor Fati: Loving Your Fate In Life
“Don’t ask for things to happen as you would like them to but wish them to happen as they actually do, and you’ll be alright.”
— Epictetus (Enchiridion), as translated by Anthony Long in How to be Free
There are many unfair things in life which can’t be controlled. Epictetus knew this well. His early life was spent as a slave in the Roman Empire, and his very moniker Epiktētos means “acquired,” or property.
We’ll all deal with loss, sickness, pain, and random misfortune that are none of our doing. Epictetus taught his students not to dwell on it. While we can’t control our suffering, we can choose how we think about it.
Closer to our own time, Friedrich Nietzsche neatly put this idea into two Latin words — amor fati: a love of one’s fate. In his work Ecce Homo, he referred to the idea as a “formula for greatness”. He also advised it was not enough just to bear fate, but to embrace it with love.
While author and former Navy SEAL Jocko Willink puts it less poetically:
“Whenever anything sucks — I like it. It’s going to make me tougher. It’s going to give me a good story to tell. It’s going to toughen my mind. It’s going to bring us together…”
Each of these ideas seem counterintuitive, however, they break your mind free from ruminating on things that can’t be controlled. Or you can choose to be rightfully angry. Although this doesn’t change anything, except you’re in the same position, along with being pissed at the world.
Amor Fati is a much more constructive approach. Now, let’s sum everything up.
Your Set Of Pithy And Memorable Eternal Ideas
Long ago Marcus Aurelius kept a list of short and easy-to-remember concepts to consult in times of trouble. We can do the same today. All that’s necessary is to remember five simple phrases and their context.
Keep alert for the human rust of Acedia and combat it with a Meraki of your choice.
Mempsimoiria may strike when our Facebook friend’s lives are better than ours. But we don’t know what they’ve traded for those images online, and what cracks lie behind them.
Apply Sua Sponte and fix the world around you by your own accord and gain agency.
In things you can’t control, practice Amor Fati and love your fate.
-Originally posted on Medium 5/16/24