Radical Acceptance by Epictetus - Stoic HW's #42
Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.
This statement signifies the importance of your relationship with yourself. Epictetus believes that we should spend the time getting to know ourselves and then work on improving our relationship with ourselves.
This is something vital which I believe gets overlooked on in society. Many people do not even consider their relationship with themselves, yet who do we spend every moment in our lives with? Ourselves. Furthermore, it has become apparent to me in recent years that to love others, we need first to adorn ourselves. How can we expect to maximise our relationship with others if our relationships with ourselves aren't healthy? We can work on our relationship with the self through methods such as meditation, reflection and gratitude journals. It is a necessary thing that everyone should implement into their lives if they wish to live a happier, more content life.
Spend more time present with yourself!
Be exceptional!
Background on Epictetus
Born into slavery 55AD Epictetus is the famous Stoic of whom is most influenced by God, or the Greek Gods as they were in those times. His slave master was very fond of him and allowed him to study philosophy in his spare time, and this is when he was exposed to the ‘Stoa’ teachings by his mentor Musonius Rufus. Epictetus gained freedom from slavery shortly after Emperor Nero’s death and subsequently began teaching philosophy. He taught stoicism for the rest of his life, even when forced to leave Rome as philosophers were banned in Rome, he simply moved to Greece and taught for his remaining days until he died in 135AD. His tao is spread over a few books, each of which is harder reads when compared to Aurelius or Seneca’s writings.