After today’s class and our discussion of stoicism, I couldn’t help but think about my dad. I have always been a pretty emotional person. Commercials make me cry, my temper has a hairpin trigger, and I tend to get emotionally bogged down in the trials of everyday life. When I lived at home with my parents, they would often get frustrated with the constant emotional rollercoaster that were my teen years. Each crisis with my academic or social life would send me into a tailspin of negative emotions and they would inevitably try to get me back on course. Like the Stoics, my father would offer me the advice that should not let other’s control my emotions. He would say, people, events, and circumstances cannot affect your happiness or mood unless you allow them to. This is very similar to the aspects of Stoic philosophy we discussed today. Stoics teach that if you do not concern yourself with the good or bad actions of others and do not allow it to affect your own feelings, you are completely free from worry. By realizing the absolute control an individual has over his or her own emotional state, one may realize that happiness is a choice one makes and a way of life. While I don’t think my dad has been studying stoic philosophy, I can say that from personal experiences following his advice has given me peace in some difficult situations.
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