Greetings Readers!
Here is the latest Monday Muse with a morning meditation, perennial reminder, question, and recommendation(s) to consider.
Be wise and be well this week!
📿 Morning Meditation
This week’s morning meditation is courtesy of The Wisdom School podcast (Apple or Spotify). Today’s meditation is a short selected reading (delivered in a Lectio Divina style) inspired by Stoic Paradoxes by the Roman statesman Cicero.
📌 Perennial Reminder(s)
Psychologists and psychoanalysts point to paradoxes in our psyche. Paradoxes infuse the writing of psychoanalyst Carl Jung—mind and matter, virtues and vices, spirit and body, life and death, good and evil, truth and falsehood, unity and multiplicity, and so on. More recently, psychologist Kirk Schneider described such paradoxes in his book The Paradoxical Self. Drawing on ideas from philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, he argues that the human psyche exists on a continuum between more constrictive, reserved, and withdrawn aspects and more expansive, adventurous, and outgoing ones. Human dysfunctions arise when we veer too far toward either pole, habits that can result in depression at one end and mania at the other.
Source: Both/And Thinking by Wendy K. Smith (Listen to the conversation)
💡 Perennial Question(s)
What are your values and goals?
Identifying values and resolving conflicts is a little like gardening. To be honest, I hate gardening, but I have enough gardeners in my circle of friends and family to have a sense of what goes on with them. Gardeners work with what they’ve got—the soil, grown trees, the shape of the plot of land—and make it into something satisfying. … Going with this metaphor, life is a garden, our goals are plants, and our values are the plants we care most about. What we need to do is to figure out what we’ve got to work with, which are our most prized goals (our values), and how to put everything together in a way that works for us.
Source: What Do You Want Out of Life? by Valerie Tiberius (Listen to the conversation).
🔥 Recommendation(s)
This week’s recommendation is an upcoming virtual event (Saturday, August 19th) by The Plato's Academy Centre, titled On Seneca: Anger, Fear, and Sadness. If you’re a fan of our Sundays with Seneca series—you’ll love this event. You can expect to see a few previous podcasts guests as well: Donald J. Robertson, James Romm, and David Fideler.
🎧 Recent Podcast(s)
Thank you for reading/listening; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
P.S. As always, if you’re interested in becoming a member but unable to afford it. Feel free to request a complimentary membership or use this discount link for anyone who needs a little help.
Thanks for mentioning our virtual conference on Seneca.