Episode #245 - Stoic Grace (Part 2)

In episode 244, I discussed the equivalent of grace in Stoicism (if it exists at all). I defined it as: Stoic grace is the state of flourishing achieved through virtue by practicing Amor Fati, which is the use of the rational mind to completely love one’s fate, including when Providence gives you either preferred indifferents or dispreferred indifferents, never asking for more or less of either, but having gratitude for exactly how many of each is received. In this episode, I want to break this down practically: how do we gracefully accept everything that comes our way, good and bad?

Episode Transcript

Some Hard Truths About Life

Before I get into the touchy-feely aspects of Amor Fati, I want to first remove all romantic elements of life from your brain. Make no mistake: life is tough. Let’s go through a few things that make it inherently tough.

First, there’s your death. That kinda sucks. Sure, we can transcend the fear of death with philosophy, but your inherent biology screams that death is a bad thing. Second, because of this, anxiety and pain are a thing in the human experience. Pain and anxiety point exist to avoid death, and because death is unavoidable, pain and anxiety are bound to be present in your life.

Thirdly, there’s the death of those you love. That’s another thing that will happen (unless you avoid love altogether which I would not recommend). You may have recognized a pattern – they all relate to mortality. That’s true! You could argue that death naturally creates unpleasant experiences. If we were immortal, we would not die, nor our loved ones, and we wouldn’t have pain or anxiety.