The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus may seem an unlikely figure to teach us how to achieve a calm mind because of his reputation as an indulgent pleasure-seeker. Unfortunately, the teachings of Epicurus are gravely misunderstood by many. While it’s true that, according to Epicurus, pleasure leads to happiness, his philosophy leans much more to asceticism […]
Read MoreAuthor: Einzelganger
Hated, Ignored, Rejected & Happy 📽️
Do we need a good reputation to be happy? The Black Mirror episode ‘Nosedive’ takes place in a futuristic world in which reputation is the main currency. The story revolves around a young woman named Lacie who desperately wants to raise her social credibility, so she can apply for a residence in a fancy community. […]
Read More
How to Stop Procrastinating 📽️
The greatest hindrance to living is expectancy, which depends upon the morrow and wastes to-day. Seneca, On the Shortness of Life, 9 When we procrastinate, we are immersed in future thinking, and unable to do the work that we had planned to do in the present moment. The consequences of this behavior are often harmful. […]
Read More
Win Without Trying 📽️
Competitions can be nerve-wracking. The more we live up to the day on which we are supposed to shine, the more anxiety builds up. What if I perform badly? What if something goes wrong? An Olympic swimmer trains thousands of hours, just to get that medal. A musician practices for days on end, just to […]
Read More
The Art of War 📽️
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle Sun Tzu, The Art of War War is part of life. It’s in the nature of most living organisms to engage in battle, defeat opponents, and to dominate. With humans, we see this happen in war, in business, on the soccer […]
Read More
What’s done is done | Letting go of the past
Being immersed in paperwork during the last few weeks, I feel like I’m running a company. Officially, that’s exactly what I’m doing. Lately, I’ve been watching YouTube stats, submitting my earnings to the government for tax cuts, applying SEO to my videos for better rankings, examining past results, and speculating future expectations. It’s a shame, […]
Read More
The 4 Stoic Sins 📽️
A Stoic’s end goal is to achieve ‘eudaimonia’, which is a state of flourishing that arises when we live in accordance with nature. But how do we live in accordance with nature? The Stoics believe that this requires living ‘rationally’, and that rational perfection can be found in virtue. Simply put: virtue is the path […]
Read More
Reasons to Stop Worrying 📽️
The ability to plan for the future is a cornerstone of our civilization. The human race would never have flourished if we didn’t organize, arrange, design, prepare, and delay gratification for greater causes. Take, for example, this structure: the Kölner Dom, which is a massive cathedral in the German city of Cologne. The construction began […]
Read More
An Introduction to the Enneagram 📽️
The Enneagram of Personality is a system used by numerous mental health professionals to get more insight into one’s character, and as a method for self-development. The Enneagram consists of nine personality archetypes that are interconnected in different ways. Some say that the Enneagram is liberating compared to the conventional methodology of mental health disorders […]
Read More
The Power of ‘No’ 📽️
It’s a short simple word: ‘no’. But for some people, it’s extremely difficult to use nonetheless. Especially so-called ‘people pleasers’ have difficulties saying ‘no’ to the people they intend to please. Which is a shame, because the ability to say ‘no’ not only helps us to not do things that we don’t want to do; […]
Read More