Coaching practices for Marcus Aurelius Present
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Marcus Aurelius Present, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- This one problem has swelled up to fill my entire field of vision, like it’s the only thing in the world
- I’m never really doing the thing I’m doing
- I’m never actually in what I’m doing
- I know who I’m going to deal with today
- Whenever I write anything down, part of me is quietly performing for some imagined reader, so it comes out polished and dishonest
Practices that may help
- Meditations, as Marcus Practiced It
Meditations was Marcus Aurelius’ private journal — a set of self-directed exercises for keeping his judgment steady while running an empire: writing to himself, rehearsing the day’s difficult people, separating events from his opinions about them, and remembering how small and brief it all is. The strongest evidence for these is their direct line into cognitive behavioral therapy and into expressive-writing and self-distancing research. - Place it in the scale of the whole
Set your problem against the size of the universe and the brevity of all human time.
Meditations, as Marcus Practiced It - Give full attention to the present action
Do what you are doing completely — not while managing the past or planning the future.
The Stoic Discipline of Action - Do the task in front of you, fully
Treat each present action as if it were your last, with full attention and no half-measures.
Meditations, as Marcus Practiced It - Premeditate the difficult people
Each morning, expect to meet the ungrateful, the arrogant, and the dishonest — and pre-decide your response.
Meditations, as Marcus Practiced It - Write to yourself, not for an audience
Keep a private record of philosophical self-argument, not a performance or a diary.
The Stoic Daily Review - Write to yourself (the Meditations method)
Keep a private notebook where you argue yourself back to your own principles, in your own words.
Meditations, as Marcus Practiced It - Account for what you owe others
Regularly recall, by name, the people and gifts that made you who you are.
Meditations, as Marcus Practiced It - The Inner Citadel
The "inner citadel" is Pierre Hadot’s name for a core idea in Marcus Aurelius: your own rational mind — your power to judge and assent — is the one place that cannot be taken from you by external events. Marcus calls it the "hegemonikon" (ruling faculty). Building it means training your faculty of assent so it responds to impressions deliberately rather than being yanked by them. The practices are largely mechanistic and clinical in their evidence base, via the well-known Stoicism-to-CBT lineage. - Strip the event to the bare facts
Describe what actually happened without the story you’ve wrapped around it.
Meditations, as Marcus Practiced It
Related concerns
- How Marcus Aurelius Journaled
Meditations was Marcus Aurelius’ private journal — a set of self-directed exercises for keeping his judgment steady while running an empire: writing to himself, rehearsing the day’s difficult people, separating events from his opinions about them, and remembering how small and brief it all is. The strongest evidence for these is their direct line into cognitive behavioral therapy and into expressive-writing and self-distancing research.
- Meditations As Marcus Practiced It During A Big Change
Meditations was Marcus Aurelius’ private journal — a set of self-directed exercises for keeping his judgment steady while running an empire: writing to himself, rehearsing the day’s difficult people, separating events from his opinions about them, and remembering how small and brief it all is. The strongest evidence for these is their direct line into cognitive behavioral therapy and into expressive-writing and self-distancing research.
- Meditations As Marcus Practiced It In A New Job
Meditations was Marcus Aurelius’ private journal — a set of self-directed exercises for keeping his judgment steady while running an empire: writing to himself, rehearsing the day’s difficult people, separating events from his opinions about them, and remembering how small and brief it all is. The strongest evidence for these is their direct line into cognitive behavioral therapy and into expressive-writing and self-distancing research.
- Meditations As Marcus Practiced It On A Budget
Meditations was Marcus Aurelius’ private journal — a set of self-directed exercises for keeping his judgment steady while running an empire: writing to himself, rehearsing the day’s difficult people, separating events from his opinions about them, and remembering how small and brief it all is. The strongest evidence for these is their direct line into cognitive behavioral therapy and into expressive-writing and self-distancing research.
- Meditations As Marcus Practiced It With My Team
Meditations was Marcus Aurelius’ private journal — a set of self-directed exercises for keeping his judgment steady while running an empire: writing to himself, rehearsing the day’s difficult people, separating events from his opinions about them, and remembering how small and brief it all is. The strongest evidence for these is their direct line into cognitive behavioral therapy and into expressive-writing and self-distancing research.
- Meditations Marcus Aurelius Summary
Meditations was Marcus Aurelius’ private journal — a set of self-directed exercises for keeping his judgment steady while running an empire: writing to himself, rehearsing the day’s difficult people, separating events from his opinions about them, and remembering how small and brief it all is. The strongest evidence for these is their direct line into cognitive behavioral therapy and into expressive-writing and self-distancing research.
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