Stoicism is a Greco-Roman philosophy that began around 300BCE. I was never interested in Philosophy when I was younger, even until recent years when I slowly grew more interests in it, I still barely spend time learning more about it. The closest I was with philosophy is actually reading the book “Sophie’s World: A novel about the history of philosophy”, which I didn’t finish as I became occupied beginning my lecturing role. But there is quite an exception to Stoicism.

I first heard about Stoicism in 2011, when I was attending Diploma in Cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy course in London, from Donald Roberson (he authored “How to Think Like a Roman Emperor : The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius”). Since then, during my journey of self-learning, reflection, becoming a psychotherapist, developing the self, I came across Stoicism more and more.

Lessons in the discipline of Desire essentially are about understanding what is and isn’t within our control. Next, the lessons in the discipline of Action helps us to learn to navigate in difficult social situations, and finally, the lessons in the discipline of Assent is about making better judgements and internalising the principles.

You will see that it’s still highly relevant today after 2320 years.