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5 ways to start your day from the morning routine of Marcus Aurelius.
Marcus Aurelius says “At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself:
‘I have to go to work – as a human being.
What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for – the things I
was brought into the world to do?
Or is this what I was created for?
To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?”
He was the emperor of Rome from 161 to 180 AD and is considered as the last of the Five
Good Emperors.
During his rule, he found the time to construct a series of autobiographical writing known
as Meditations, in which he admits difficulty in getting out of bed in the morning.
He has a conversation with himself where he reminds himself that everything in nature
is working, the plants, the birds, the bees, all doing what it was born to do to keep the
world evolving and we as human beings are not exempt from doing our part, regardless
of our social status.
Every single life form is serving and working and it is our duty to do the same.
Every day, we must remember to do our part for the world and to fail in that endeavor
is to go against nature itself.
Thanks to his prolific journalling, we have a fair idea of what his morning routine would
have looked like and in this video we will be diving into 5 different things Marcus Aurelius
would have done in his mornings and how we can follow or adapt that routine to our modern
day lives.
1.
Greet your mornings with gratitude Marcus Aurelius tells us that “When you
arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe,
to think, to enjoy, to love” Marcus Aurelius, despite spending most of
his life in the battlefield, greeted every morning with gratitude.
He was so obsessed with perfection and improving his character that he saw each day as a provision
to do things better and was thankful for all the opportunities that he got.
On the other hand, we in the modern world spend way too much of our time focusing on
our problems in pursuit of our materialistic desires and in worrying about superfluous
uncertainties that we see each day as a miserable battleground for survival rather than seeing
it as a miraculous opportunity to be alive, to experience joy and to be able to love.
Yes, our modern world is far more complex and given the current scenario, there are
far more things to be concerned about like the ongoing pandemic, unemployment, climate
change and so on but ask yourself if you had the chance to be reborn at any time in human
history.
What would you choose?
You may choose to be in the stone age to experience the invention of fire or you might choose
the time when Michelangelo added the final daubs of paint to the Sistine Chapel, or in
16th-Century to witness Shakespeare’s opening nights.
However, living to see these momentary highlights would also bring myriad downsides.
If you got ill, your medical care might involve leeches and trepanning.
There is a high probability that you would be poor and hungry for most of your life.
Hence, if you had the chance to be reborn, one of the smarter, more prudent choices would
be today; right now.
We should be thankful for being alive just for rising up in the morning.
Because not everyone is so lucky to see that sunrise.
Therefore, regardless of your life’s situation, you should be grateful for getting the precious
privilege to be alive – to be able to breathe, think, enjoy and love.
Remember, the person who died last night was most likely craving for that one extra breath.
2.
Practice Premeditatio Malorum According to Marcus Aurelius “When you wake
up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful,
arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly.”
Premeditatio malorum or negative visualization is a technique to anticipate the worst so
that we can adequately prepare ourselves for the challenges that lie ahead.
Stoicism being the practical philosophy, makes us see the world the way it is rather than
imagining it as an ideal society.
Despite being a man of great discipline and temperance, Marcus Aurelius is believed to
have practiced this form of negative visualization.
He mentally prepared himself for the people he might encounter, and was ready to handle
anyone, no matter how difficult or abrasive they may be.
The idea here is not to keep worrying or have a pessimistic approach but to stay prepared
for the future.
We know that misfortune can befall us at any moment.
So if misfortune comes, it’s better to be prepared than unprepared, and negative visualization
helps you with just that.
To understand this, let us look at this doctor’s analogy.
Often known as an autopsy in American English, a postmortem is when doctors try to find out
why a person died.
They look at the person after the event of death.
Negative visualization is like a premortem.
We ask what could go wrong in advance, before we start a trip, or launch a product, or go
on a job interview.
Let’s say you have a job interview the day after tomorrow.
Instead of imagining the most likely scenario, imagine the worst possible case, generally
things that could go wrong, even if those things are unlikely to happen, say for example
your CV catching fire.
After visualizing this worst case scenario, you will now want to be prepared and you will
not only bring your CV on paper but also on a USB stick, or you’ll email it to the company
in advance.
The Stoics recommend negatively visualizing not only specific events such as the job interview,
but also more general things like your body, relationships, finances and so on.
Say your grandma died and you were overwhelmed with grief.
Visualise how your life would have been had you never known her.
This will give you a feeling of gratitude for the time you spent with and appreciated
her.
That’s called retrospective negative visualization.
We build up our fears to the point that they are larger than life.
Confronting them and even temporarily experiencing them, can help you overcome such barriers.
You can practice negative visualization every morning by keeping your expectations upfront
and by being far more honest with yourself.
Ask yourself - What could go wrong?
How would you handle such scenarios?
Can you overcome or plan for them?
When you prepare for the worst in the morning, you are in a better place to deal with disaster,
if and when it does arise during the day.
3.
Practice deliberate discomfort Marcus Aurelius instructs us to “Set aside
a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest
fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: "Is this the condition
that I feared?”
When he was a boy, a young Marcus Aurelius would voluntarily wear basic clothing, sleep
on the ground to embrace the Greek practice of Agoge, most commonly used to describe the
harsh and brutal training regime employed by the Spartans to develop endurance, resilience
and strength of will.
This practice of deliberate discomfort was common amongst the ancient Stoics.
The motive behind this practice is to constantly test ourselves by making life routinely uncomfortable
in some way to harden ourselves for the day we may need to live it for real.
According to Stoic philosophy, just because you can afford yourself a nice meal every
single day, doesn’t mean you should do so, in fact you may feel better if you skip a
few meals from time to time, just to experience hunger.
It builds perseverance and grit, but more importantly, it demolishes the need for comfort.
Once you overcome the need for comfort, life will become much easier because eventually
there will be days where setting your goals and sticking to them will be far easier.
Keeping in mind typical lifestyles of the modern world, the best time to routinely practice
voluntary discomfort is in the mornings.
One modern method of voluntary discomfort is starting each morning with a cold shower.
Implementing cold showers into your daily routine can not only build mental and physical
endurance, but they also promote fat loss, reduce depression, lower stress, and improve
circulation.
You could also try other things like sleeping on the floor, pushing extra weights in gym,
avoiding social media so that you can use your morning time for productive work like
journaling or reading.
Many of us in modern society live in relative comfort, so voluntary discomfort is a true
reminder of how good we really have it.
By taking extended periods of not eating, taking cold showers, sleeping on the floor,
and foregoing other modern advances we then become more grateful for the things we do
have but often take for granted.
The more you seek the uncomfortable, the more you’ll become comfortable.
4.
Journaling Marcus Aurelius explains “The recognition
that I needed to train and discipline my character.
Not to be sidetracked by my interest in rhetoric.
Not to write treatises on abstract questions, or deliver moralizing little sermons, or compose
imaginary descriptions of The Simple Life or The Man Who Lives Only for Others.
To steer clear of oratory, poetry and belles lettres.
Not to dress up just to stroll around the house, or things like that.
To write straightforward” In 1994, a professor of Psychology at the
University of Texas, Dr. James Pennebaker and his team conducted an experiment in which
they split people who had been out of a job for eight months into three groups.
The first group was asked to write about their layoff and how they felt about it, the second
was invited to write but about nothing in particular, and the final group was given
no writing instructions.
The participants that recorded their layoff experiences were notably more likely to find
new jobs in the aftermath of the study.
By writing, they were able to formally declutter the stress and the noise in their minds and
become more aligned with what they were feeling.
It gave them the push they needed to grasp where they were and where they needed to go.
The practice of journaling reflects Stoic practicality, allows us to think more clearly
and helps us to live a virtuous life.
At dawn, Marcus Aurelius would rise early from his sleep, sit at his desk, organize
his thoughts, and write detailing his Stoic philosophy, and preparing for the day ahead.
Through his practice of journaling, the Emperor was able to reflect upon the thoughts he was
having about himself, his relationships with other people, the world around him, and his
place in it.
Life these days has a high potential to cause stress, anxiety, and worry.
There is so much around us that keeps us distracted, stimulated and fighting for our attention.
It can be difficult to keep a clear head.
The human mind is extremely noisy, and the practice of journaling gives us the opportunity
to articulate our thoughts, reflect on how we handle different situations, and clarify
the way in which we wish to approach life.
In stoicism the art of journaling is more than just keeping a diary.
This daily practice is philosophy.
It is how you prepare for the day ahead in the morning and reflect on the day that has
passed in the evening.
By writing and reading your own experiences, you remind yourself of the things you have
learned from mentors and teachers, and provide a tool for yourself to realign with the person
you want to be when you feel like you are wandering from that path.
You can start this practice by putting aside 10 minutes in the morning and writing in whatever
form you find is most convenient for you.
You can write or jot notes down on paper or pull up an empty document on your computer
and record your thoughts.
It is the process that counts.
The more we write, the more our philosophy ingrains itself in our character, and the
less we will find ourselves forgetting the wisdom that we have come across in the past.
5.
Tackle The Most Important Task First In our final quote from Marcus Aurelius today,
he tells us to “Concentrate every minute like a Roman—like a man—on doing what’s
in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice”
It is well known that Marcus would tackle his most difficult tasks first.
He did not procrastinate or put things off.
He never neglected hard work or avoided his most unpleasant duties.
He had a job to do and he never complained about it to himself or to anyone else.
Every day we have a list of things we would like to accomplish but we hardly ever get
as much done as we’d like.
When you have that list of things to do, there are clearly items that are more important
than others.
Stuff that we really should tackle and stuff that may be nice, but not essential.
For example, if you’re trying to write a report that is due, then that would probably
be your most important task.
Despite knowing this fact, you work on everything else.
You avoid working on your report due to procrastination.
In the end, your most important task often ends up as the one still left on your list.
Which is why it is recommended to do your most important task the first thing in the
morning.
The idea behind tackling the most important task first is that each morning if you complete
a task that you will most likely procrastinate on, you go about your day knowing you’ve
done it and the rest of your day will be easy in comparison.
For example, let’s say you have to do laundry, grocery shopping and prepare a report on the
same day, and find preparing the report to be challenging or tedious.
Then, the way to prioritize your to do list is to start doing the task that you will most
likely procrastinate on.
In this case, it would recommend that you complete your report first before you do anything
else.
Once you have gotten the dreadful task out of the way, going grocery shopping and doing
laundry doesn’t look that bad in comparison and you will feel more empowered.
The reason behind this approach is in the morning your mind is clear, everything is
quiet, and you haven’t gotten pulled into six different directions–yet.
It’s your one opportunity to prioritize the thing that matters to you most, before
your phone starts ringing and email inbox starts dinging.
By completing the important task on your to-do list before anything else, you get both momentum
and a sense of accomplishment.
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