{"id":10861,"date":"2021-04-14T23:15:24","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T03:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/?p=10861"},"modified":"2021-04-14T23:15:24","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T03:15:24","slug":"you-are-not-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/you-are-not-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"You Are Not Alone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes it can feel like you\u2019re a solitary warrior.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Certainly Marcus Aurelius\u2019s <\/span>Meditations<\/span><\/i><\/a> reads like that at times. He feels like the last honest man. The last good man. The only one keeping the faith.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We often feel that way about the cause we\u2019re fighting for. We feel that way about the trauma we carry from childhood. About our fears. That it\u2019s just us against the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But this is wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world,\u201d <\/span>James Baldwin wrote<\/span><\/a>, but then you start reading and you realize as Baldwin did that \u201cit was books that taught me that the things that tormented me were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is sort of the irony of <\/span>Meditations<\/span><\/i><\/a>. The private diary intended for no one…manages to appeal to the many. It becomes universal. Marcus\u2019s life and pain and loss were so unique…yet so relatable. If only other emperors had written such a book\u2014or if <\/span>anyone<\/span><\/i> had\u2014maybe he could have read it and felt a little less alone, comforted by that sense of <\/span>sympatheia<\/span><\/i><\/a>,<\/span> of his timeless connections to such a diverse world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s not too late for us. Like James Baldwin, you gotta read to free yourself from the yoke of doom and gloom that finds its way around your neck when you think you\u2019re the only one who\u2019s ever worn it. You have to get outside yourself. You have to enter other people\u2019s minds and let them enter yours\u2014which is something Marcus talked about. You have to understand you\u2019re not alone. Your struggles are shared. There are people struggling even more than you are.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Connect with them\u2014<\/span>even if they\u2019re long dead<\/span><\/a>. And if you can, try to put some of your own thoughts out there. It may just help someone who needs it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When you need encouragement, Marcus said, look at the people around you and who came before you. \u201cGive yourself time to learn something new and good,\u201d <\/i><\/b>he said<\/i><\/b><\/a>, \u201cand cease to be whirled around.\u201d If you\u2019re ready to give yourself that time, check out our 13-day email challenge, <\/i><\/b>Read to Lead: A Daily Stoic Reading Challenge<\/i><\/b><\/a>. It will transform not just the way you learn from books, but your life.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

P.S.\u00a0<\/i><\/b>This was originally sent<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a> on April 14, 2021. Sign up today for <\/i><\/b>the Daily Stoic\u2019s email<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0and get our popular\u00a0<\/i><\/b>free 7-day course on Stoicism.\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes it can feel like you\u2019re a solitary warrior.\u00a0 Certainly Marcus Aurelius\u2019s Meditations reads like that at times. He feels like the last honest man. The last good man. The only one keeping the faith.\u00a0 We often feel that way about the cause we\u2019re fighting for. We feel that way about the trauma we carry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nYou Are Not Alone<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/you-are-not-alone\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"You Are Not Alone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sometimes it can feel like you\u2019re a solitary warrior.\u00a0 Certainly Marcus Aurelius\u2019s Meditations reads like that at times. He feels like the last honest man. The last good man. 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