210604 What I learned in my studies this morning

Tech problems abound,

Mosquitos buzzing my ear.

Heed them not.  Keep calm.

From The Daily Stoic: 

I have a purpose: to be the best person I can be.  Many things are contained within that purpose (being a good spouse / father / son / brother / friend), but that is the primary goal.  Within it, all these other ends come to pass.

Like the slogan above the exit to the Notre Dame locker room ("Play like a champion today"), that goal should always be in mind.

Today's Meditation:

From A Calendar of Wisdom by Leo Tolstoy

From A Guide to the Good Life by William B. Irvine 

Chapter 13: Anger — On Overcoming Anti-Joy

Practice small. A teen's stomped foot. A slammed door.  A sotto voce clapback as someone walks away.  The food that isn't the exact right temperature.  The bus or train or Uber that is 3 minutes late.  The slow WIFI connection at Starbucks.  The slow walker taking up the whole passage.

All of these things are annoyances, but there's no real harm in them.  Being frustrated with them seems natural, easy, but, with practice, we can recognize that that is all they are: annoyances.  Of what use, and more specifically of what benefit, will losing control and becoming angry be?  Giving in to the urge will almost assuredly cause more problems than it will ever fix.

Use humor as an outlet. Deflecting irksome events with a well-placed joke not only takes the (mostly imaginary) sting out of the offense, but also actively replaces it with something positive. Instead of becoming upset over what happened, we end up in a better mood because of it. Wouldn't that be nice for a change?

Take the big picture.  Recognizing minor things as minor allows us to regain perspective.  This isn't worth getting upset over . . . even though it's the seventh small thing to irk us today.  That won't matter three minutes from now, much less later on.  Go big or go home . . . the Big Picture doesn't even register these peccadillos.

Daily Shakespeare