Evolved Inspired

Evolved Inspired

An open mind is an educated mind

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle There is some speculation on the source of this quote. It is often attributed to Aristotle. More on that later. The essence of this simple reflection is separation from thought from the mind. We can grasp an idea and identify with it. The thought becomes us. The concept holds from the simplest of thoughts to our greatest ideas and perceptions.

Getting to know Seneca

Who was Seneca? Seneca was an influential and often quoted Stoic philosopher. Seneca was born in 4 B.C. in Cordoba, Hispania (modern-day Spain). Known as Seneca the Younger and Lucius Annaeus Seneca. Senaca, later raised in Rome, was a pivotal teacher and advisor to Emperor Nero. A rich and powerful man of Rome, Seneca narrowly escaped a death penalty in 41 A.D, endured exile and died by forced suicide in 65 A.

How to Think Like a Roman Emperor (ebook, pdf)

How to Think Like a Roman Emperor covers the life of Marcus Aurelius in a unique and entertaining way of introducing and exploring a number of key Stoic principles in practice. How to Think Like a Roman Emperor overlays a compelling account of the life of Marcus Aurelius with Stoic philosophy in the context of the great challenges Marcus confronted as a child through to his death. Each chapter takes us through a period of the life of Marcus and ends with a short reflection/explanation of Stoic values in the context of the experiences of Marcus

How to live like a Stoic in 4 steps — How to live like

What can a 2,000 year old philosophy do to help us thrive in the 21st century? Stoicism is a very practical way of thinking with a number of techniques that can not only help us cope, but help us thrive and grow. Surprisingly the Stoic approach to daily life is a great way to more… How to live like a Stoic in 4 steps — How to live like

Be in the Arena

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Rumination

Is our mind the greatest story teller? Our minds seem to work on stories either via replay (he said, she said, and then this) or predictive stories. Our storytelling is largely based on emotion, rarely logical and largely perception biased. As our memory doesn’t work as a reliable filing system but instead recreates our recalled experience, our memories are largely false. This is important when we consider rumination. Simply put rumination is the state of chewing over these stories we tell ourselves without any progress.

The map is not the territory

The map is not the territory was presented as a presupposition of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) on a recent course. The term was for some reason, the trickiest of the presuppositions to grasp in a practical way. Step one was understanding that the world map and model are used interchangeably here. The map is our own model or perception of the world. I then came across this quote: Monks, we who look at the whole and not just the part, know that we too are systems of interdependence, of feelings, perceptions, thoughts, and consciousness all interconnected.