Confidence is a choice
Concentrate on the present moment. I believe this is incomplete, you cannot just concentrate on the present moment.
First things first. A choice must be taken first to concentrate on the present moment later, and that is the decision to engage, to live, to love, to act and to be. I blatantly believe, that to live a stoic life, this decision must be made first, the decision to engage, the decision to live, the decision to be awake to life. This decision is the primordial decision, the first movement, the ignitor, to become the spectated not the spectator.
Only when this decision is taken can we concentrate on living in the present moment.
Concentrating on the present moment is an aid to the first rule which is, deal with whatever it is that you have to deal with.
“He who is brave is free”
― Seneca
There is something magical about doing so, it’s almost as if you are acting as logos and nature intended you to act. You become a person that is living according to nature.
When the decision to engage is made, living in the present moment becomes easy. Where else can we engage other than the present moment? It would be absurd to take the decision to engage and not live in the present moment.
Living in the present moment is living, is saying yes to life and whatever it is that it has to offer. Life offers many things and all must be accepted and embraced, from sickness to happiness, from death to birth, everything must be accepted.
You can tell you are not living in the present moment when you are not moving. When you are thinking and thinking and wondering all the what if’s. That is called insecurity.
Being sure of oneself is very easy, it is just a decision. The decision to say yes and to engage, all else accommodates to the man that is sure about his decision to live.
It is nothing but a choice and a quite simple one. Please try it, say yes to life, live, discover your voice and you’ll do the world and yourself a great service.
Stoic answers aim is to provide answers to the deepest human questions, which sadly, are almost always never asked.
Subscribe and receive for free the Askesis ebook to further develop your practice of stoicism.
Visit our Patreon page for more stoic, Patreon only content. Thanks.
