Do This While You Can | The Portable Retreat

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0:54Look, if you're listening to this podcast, you've probably heard of HelloFresh, right? They're the number one meal kit in America. They make home cooking easier with chef-crafted recipes and fresh ingredients delivered straight to your door. This fall, they're serving up even more to love. It's not the HelloFresh you remember. It's even better. HelloFresh is bigger. They've doubled their menu. You can choose up to 100 options each week. It's healthier. You can choose from 15-plus high-protein recipes. And they now help you eat greener with veggie-packed recipes that have two or more veggies per week.

1:28And it's tastier. You can get steak and seafood recipes delivered every week for no extra cost. They have three times the seafood options. They also have hearty fall recipes like classic beef chili or honey glazed pork tenderloin. We just got home from a week away. We're trying to think about what we're going to eat this week. It was such a relief to see that HelloFresh box sitting on our doorstep when we got home. They've got everything you need for the recipe that they pick out. There's no last minute trips to the store. Plus, the meals are delicious and easy to make. The best way to cook just got better.

2:00Go to HelloFresh.com slash Stoic10FM to get 10 free meals plus free breakfast for life. One box with active subscription. Free meals applied as a discount on the first box. New subscribers only varies by plan. That's HelloFresh.com Stoic10FM to get 10 free meals plus free breakfast for life. welcome to the daily stoic podcast each day we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient stoics illustrated with stories from history current events and literature to help you be better at what you do and at the beginning of the week we try to do a deeper dive setting a kind of stoic intention for the week something to meditate on something to think on something to leave you with to journal about whatever it is you happen to be doing.

2:48So let's get into it.

2:55This is how to break out and break free. It's very easy to get comfortable, to build up your life exactly how you want it to be, to minimize inconveniences and hand off the stuff you don't life to do to find what you enjoy, where you enjoy it, and never leave. A velvet rut is what this is called. It's nice, but the comfort tricks you into thinking that you're not stuck. And look, after a pandemic, after a period of inflation, bad news, constantly screaming at you from your TV or timeline after months of harsh winter, it's hard not to seek out that comfort, to be relieved by it. It's been a long December, as the song goes, and there's plenty of reason to crawl into a velvet rut with a blanket or to jet off somewhere warm and radiate in luxury.

3:43But the Stoics knew that this was a kind of death, that as soon as we stop growing, we start dying, or at least we become more vulnerable to the swings of fate and fortune. Seneca talked over and over again about the importance of adversity, of not only embracing the struggle that life throws at us, but actively seeking out that difficulty so you can be stronger and better and more prepared. It's funny, over here at Daily Stoic, we do these challenges throughout the year. Maybe you've done one before. On the one hand, calling it a challenge is probably a bad marketing decision because people don't usually get excited by the thought of being challenged.

4:19In fact, what they usually want is a secret or a shortcut or a hack. They want someone to solve the challenges for them. On the other hand, isn't embracing life's challenges what stoicism is all about? So naturally, we couldn't call the Daily Stoics Spring Forward Challenge anything but. And it is a challenge 10 days straight of them starting right now. So yes, it's been a long December, but as the song also reminds us, there's reason to believe that this year will be better than the next. And that reason is you. If you allow yourself to be, if you challenge yourself, if you decide to climb out of your velvet rut, a person who has never been challenged, Seneca said, who always gets their way is a tragic figure.

5:01They have no idea what they're capable of. They're not even close to filling their potential. Begin at once to live, he recommended, and count each day as a separate life. So as the seasons change, as the clocks change, we want to urge you one last time to join us and thousands of other Stoics. Join me as well in the Daily Stoic Spring Forward Challenge. Because one of the best ways to cure anxiety, to deal with stress, to become present, is to really throw yourself into some means of self-improvement. Break out, break free, get cleaning, challenge yourself, literally turn the clocks and spring forward into the rest of your year and really the rest of your life.

5:39I'm recording this last little message from my kids spring break. We went down to the beach and on the one hand, it was radiating in warmth and luxury, as I said, but I've also been challenging myself like crazy. My wife and I have been talking about what we want our lives to be, decisions we're going to make as we get back, pushing myself physically, really trying to get in shape, trying to break out of some old habits, a little bit of a slump I'm in. And that's what we made the challenge around. I think you're really going to love it. I'm proud of this one. We did it once, like four or five years ago, and we re-imagined it and brought it back.

6:15And I've already been overwhelmed by the signups, and I would like to have you in there with us. You can sign up right now at dailystoic.com slash spring. Or if you've been thinking about joining Daily Stoic Life, join that at dailystoiclife.com and get this challenge and all the challenges for free. It's going to be awesome. I'll see you in there, dailystoic.com slash spring. But why don't you start spring off by not procrastinating anymore and join us in there, dailystoic.com slash spring.

6:52You hear that? That's not just a Toyota truck. That's the sound of no crowds. No alerts. No distractions. And no telling what you'll find next. You know, like a detour. So why would you ever take a tour when you could take a detour? Toyota trucks.

7:26hey it's ryan welcome to another episode of the daily stoic podcast we're doing some riffing from the daily stoic journal this morning i've got mine in my leather case it says make time i gotta make time to do that journaling and when i don't my psyche my brain my philosophy practice suffers. You can grab that at store.dailystoic.com. But today's entry is about the portable retreat. It is in the future on vacation, on our day off, when we plan to get out into nature that we think will find peace and release from the crush of the everyday demands of life. But this never really seems to happen as often as we think, does it?

8:06And when we do get that peace, it's difficult to keep it once we're back in the fray. Well, for the Stoic, all this is madness. The true retreat is in the freedom of our own mind and soul to consider the gifts we already have that can be our refuge for all time if we take the time daily to do so. So good for you taking a little quiet time this morning or evening to listen to a podcast. It's not cramming you full of info, but it's a bit more philosophical. And then hopefully you've got the Daily Stoic journal out or the Daily Stoic, but we've got three quotes in this week's entry, one from Marcus, one from Epictetus, and another from Marcus.

8:43Mark's Relius Meditations 4.3. He says, people seek retreats for themselves in the country, by the sea or in the mountains. You are very much in the habit of yearning for those same things. But this is entirely the trait of a base person, when you can at any moment find such a retreat in yourself. For nowhere can you find a more peaceful and less busy treat than inside your own soul, especially if on close inspection it is filled with ease, which I say is nothing more than being well-ordered. Treat yourself often to this retreat and be renewed. Then Epictetus says, remember it is not only the desire for wealth and position that debases and subjugates us, also the desire for peace and leisure and travel and learning.

9:26It doesn't matter what the external thing is, the value we place on it subjugates us to another. Where our heart is set, there our impediment lies. And then Marcus Riele says, Remember that your ruling reason becomes unconquerable when it rallies and relies on itself so that it won't do anything contrary to its own will, even if its position is irrational. How much more unconquerable if its judgments are carefully and made rationally. Therefore, the mind freed from passions is an impenetrable fortress and a person has no more secure place of refuge for all time. That's Meditations 848. I'm thinking about this because I'm just doing a little recording here before I go out of town.

10:08It's my kids' spring break. We're going to spend a week down at the beach. And I look forward to this and I enjoy it. And I sometimes weirdly get more done there, more present there. You know, you are a different person on vacation. But the Stokes would say, why? Does it have to be that way? What does it say that your life is something that you feel the need to escape from? So one of the things that I try to do, I mean, I like going down there. One of the perks of working for myself, I don't have to be in one location. And sometimes a change of scenery is good for things. But I ask myself, you know, what is it about my routine there that allows me to not feel so rushed in the morning, spend more time with the kids, sort of right at leisure?

10:54Why do I seem to have more time in the day? Why am I always available to catch the sunset? And what is stopping me from being able to do that at home? That's what Marcus is saying. He's like, look, the thing that's working here is you. Like you're finding the retreat in yourself, that moment of stillness or whatever. And that's available to you anywhere. He says that inside your own soul, there is peace and not so much busyness. So why are you letting spring break or summer vacation or a three-day weekend? Why is that the only way you get it? Why can't you get it now? Why can't you see the sunset where you live?

11:35I love taking my family. We go to Big Bend a couple of times a year, one of my favorite national parks. And what I love while we're there is looking up at this incredible sky. There's so little light pollution there. The stars just, they feel like they, you know, just pop right out of the black sky. And I remember we went and then I was back a couple weeks later and I had to go take the trash out or something. And I live out in the country. There's not a lot of light pollution where I live. And I sort of looked up for a second and I was like, this sky's almost as good as it is there. We drove eight hours to look at stars.

12:12and how many nights do I walk to take out the trash or get something my kids forgot in the car and I don't take a minute to just step up and look, right? That's kind of what I'm thinking about here is so much of what we give ourselves on those retreats or those vacations or those time away, we could have inside ourself anytime we choose and indeed we deserve to do that. And I think about, you know, I read more, but I could read more here. I just, I throw my phone in the other room and I forget about it for a while. And I need to do that here. You need to do that here. Give yourself a staycation.

12:50Give yourself a life that's a little bit closer to that vibe where you're a bit more philosophical. You're taking the time. You're retreating into your own self. You're finding the refuge that is there inside yourself. That's what it's all about to me. That's what I think the Stoics are reminding themselves. And look, Marcus really has had a country estate. state epictetus had a country estate they all traveled they all saw the world they weren't saying you never do it they're just saying don't do it as an escape don't do it fooling yourself that it's not something you could have now inside yourself at any moment and in fact you must do it just takes a bit more discipline it's not as easy as you know buying a plane ticket and planning a trip.

13:35I just had Cal Newport on the podcast who I love and I love his work. And he was talking about this too. I was noting how busy my week was going up into this trip that I'm taking. And he points out, he's like, yeah, that's fake vacation, fake break, because you're just the same amount of work is being done. You're just concentrating on this week before and after. so you're not actually preventing any burnout. You're not actually getting any relaxation, you're not getting any stillness, you're not getting any quiet. You're just spreading it around, moving it around on the plate, right? And that's not a good way to do it.

14:14So I hope whether it's close to your spring break here or not, or what plans you have, you take this lesson from the Stoics seriously because it's an important one and it's one I'm struggling with and thinking about myself and I hope today's perspective was helpful. You can grab this cool cover we have for the Daily Stoic Journal at store.dailystoic.com. If you don't have the Daily Stoic Journal, you can grab them as a package and I'll sign it. And it's cool. It says make time on the front. And it's a reminder from Epictetus, every day and night, keep thoughts like this at hand. Write them, read them aloud, talk to yourself and others about them.

14:44That's what I'm doing on this podcast. That's what you're doing by listening. And I really appreciate the opportunity to do that. I'll talk to you all soon.

15:00Thanks for listening to the Daily Stoic podcast. Just a reminder, we've got signed copies of all my books in the Daily Stoic store. You can get them personalized. You can get them sent to a friend. The obstacle is the way you go is the enemy. Stillness is the key. The leather-bound edition of the Daily Stoic. We have them all in the Daily Stoic store, which you can check out at store.dailystoic.com. My family owns a 2023 Toyota 4Runner, and honestly, it's my favorite vehicle that I've ever owned. Around town, it's smooth and reliable, but where it really shines is on our trips into the backcountry.

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