How Stoicism can help you be healthier

Ancient wisdom for modern life

Marcus Aurelius: had he lived 1,850 years later, I’d be listening to his podcast

January is truly the Mondayist of months - and this January has five(!) Mondays. The good news is that you’ve already got through four of them. And I’m not going to dwell on any bad news, because I’ve decided that the best way to power through this cold, dark month is by channelling the Stoics.

Most people think of Stoicism as deprivation, discipline and tolerating hard things without complaining, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Whether or not you’re someone who spends much time thinking about the Roman Empire, it’s worth getting to know about Stoicism. They had all of the ideas that we’re talking about now, just two thousand years earlier.

For example, I recently wrote about the power of small actions; a topic that’s been widely explored in recent years, from James Clear’s Atomic Habits to Gabrielle Treanor’s 1% Wellness Experiment.

But it was Zeno, the founder of Stoicism, who famously said: ‘Wellbe…