To Meditate On One’s Self
Consciously thinking about what you do, and arguably more importantly, why you do it, is guaranteed to make you a stronger human being.
I’m currently reading Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations”, and it’s so weird to think that we’re regarding a man’s personal (albeit philosophical) diary as one of the greatest philosophical works.
Reading that book you can truly see how he tried to better himself by writing down what would make him a better man.
And the fact that it was a Roman emperor’s writing also seems somewhat surreal, because reading it truly feels like looking at the writings of a man trying to better himself. Just a regular man, trying to be the best man.
And he does so by writing down how he should act and why he should act like that.
Going into this reading I expected the book to be at least somewhat snobby and pretentious. But I was proven completely wrong.
While the language is somewhat convoluted, Aurelius doesn’t pretend to be anything he’s not.
“Heraclitus often told us the world would end in fire. But it was moisture that carried him off; he died smeared with cowshit.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
He doesn’t pretend to be anything but a man trying his best. The writing is very genuine and it shows.
The fact that I can relate to a Roman emperor from more than a thousand years ago is truly fascinating.
I might try journaling something a bit, though expressing my thoughts and reflecting is in a huge part done by this blog.
The one simple lesson that can be taken from the fact that this book even exists is that writing down your thoughts in any way is surprisingly beneficial.
One of the greatest minds in human history, and an emperor of Rome had to write down his thoughts and his life to make sense of it. Even if such a strong mind needed an outlet for its life, then I believe everyone does.
So pick an outlet to express your thoughts, and go and try to make sense of it.
