The Introverted Thinker Newsletter #009
A simple Stoic quote that is central to my life, two things you have to listen to, and a book that opened my heart and showed me the power of the mind.
Hello everyone, hope your enjoying your summers!👋☀️
I’ve included a lot of recommendations this week in terms of books and stuff to listen to. I’ve had a great week and I hope you have had one too!
Enjoy the rest of the newsletter and thanks for coming back once again, I appreciate it.❤️
The Quote🏛:
“Whatever happens to you has been waiting to happen since the beginning of time. The twining strands of fate wove both of them together.”
- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Stoicism was the first school of thought that properly caught my interest and the first one that launched me down a path of philosophical exploration. In addition to this, this quote talks about something that I feel very strongly about; fate.
There are many different beliefs surrounding fate. Some people don’t even believe it exists. Others think fate is to do with luck. Well, Stoicism thought that our fates were predetermined by some higher power. I am not religious at all, but I do believe that our own fate is aligned with some sort of force within the universe, an energy if you will.
This quote brings it back to a famous Stoic mantra: Amor Fati. This translated to a “Love of one's own fate.” Whatever happens to you, it was destined for you, and it happens for a reason. Because of this, you should love it, no matter what it is. You aren't truly yourself if it weren't for your past experiences and what has happened to you in life.
The idea that whatever I achieve in my life was destined for me is a beautiful and comforting feeling. Although some may not hold this same belief, it’s central to my life.
I know I was destined to be a writer, it’s part of my path of fate. If I look back at my life, there were countless signs. And now that I am pursuing my dream, they are aligning to make sense to me. My capacity and potential to be a writer was there all along, I just had to find it.
The Stoics believed that everything we do is part of a Universal Network of Fate. Whatever happens is meant to happen, even if you don't know why or feel the opposite to this. All you have to do is love it, Amor Fati.
What I’ve been listening to:
An important conversation between two influential black men: Barrack Obama and Marcus Rashford in Conversation: The Penguin Podcast
Last week, Marcus Rashford MBE and Barrack Obama hopped onto The Penguin Podcast to talk about humanitarian work and societal issues for around 30 minutes.
We all know who Barrack Obama is, but for those who don’t know who Rashford is, he is a national hero over here in England.
He is a 23-year-old professional football player for Manchester United FC and is a world-class phenomenal player. Although Marcus is very young, he has started to do a lot of charitable work to give back to his community, particularly to the children of the future who come from poor backgrounds.
Marcus himself grew up quite disadvantaged in Manchester, so he feels the need to inspire and give back to the generation of the future. He launched a campaign to make sure children could receive free school meals when schools were shut during lockdown.
He became an ambassador for FareShare and raised an estimated £20m of additional donations to the food poverty charity.
Marcus is an inspirational person that is on the path to do some extraordinary work. His conversation with Obama is inspiring also, as Obama talks about some stories from his 20’s and more lessons from his recent books.
It is clear Obama is very impressed by Rashford’s work as he always praises him. If you are interested in Obama or Rashford, I recommend you listen to this, it’s only 30 minutes.
A Short Speech by Alan Watts: The Mind
I came across this four-minute video on Youtube last week of a portion of Alan Watt’s speech. I have written about him in this newsletter before, and you can read more about him in this article I wrote. He is one of my favorite philosophers.
This short speech I urge you to listen to is about the mind, and of course, Alan Watts talks about it like poetry. The most complex thing we know, the source of our suffering, the creator of our reality. Our mind is something we will always have a limited understanding of, whether you view it as metaphysical or scientific, the mysteries will always exist.
The only thing we can do with the mind is attempt to quiet it, because the constant chatter is tiring, toxic, and hard to live with quite frankly. Here’s a quote from the speech:
“In order to have something to think about, there are times when you simply must stop thinking… The first rule is don’t try to. Because if you do you will be like someone trying to make rough water smooth with a flat iron, and all that will do is stir it up.”
We have to exist with the mind, that’s all we can do. Even if it causes us suffering at times, just let it be, and flow with the current of life.
What I Read Over The Last Two Weeks:
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield
This very short book basically talks about how we should approach procrastination and how we can beat it for good as people involved in a creative field like writing or painting.
The author refers to procrastination as ‘resistance’ because it is resisting us from doing what we have to do, even if we know the task at hand is important. Pressfield talks about this ‘resistance’ as a force of nature, just like an energy, and I do agree with this.
The ‘resistance’ we experience when we sit down to do a piece of work, but end up procrastinaing, can be likened to a mysterious universal force that is preventing us from succeeding. Pressfield views the source of this force as being religious, or metaphysical, directly related to God.
This book wasn’t great if i’m honest, it told me what resistance was, but lacked any clear outcome or action plan on what to do. In all honesty I wouldn’t recommend it.
Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon's Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart by Dr. James R Doty
Speechless. I was speechless when I finished the book. I truly don’t think whatever I’m about to write can ever do this book justice. It is cemented in my top 3 favourite books ever.
This book is about the authors journey, from a boy to the present, about how the skills he learned in the back of a magic shop as a child changed his life. In his eighth grade summer he was taught the skills of the power of meditation, manifestation, and compassion by a old caring woman named Ruth.
This book has transformed the way I view the mind, the heart, and my attitude towards the world and my future. Before reading this, I had been meditating for about a year, but in all honesty I was wasting my time.
This book revolutionised the way I meditate and finally helped me build a sustainable practice that has started to properly effect my life for the better. Because the author was only a child when he was taught these meditative techniques, the way in which he recalls them in the book is easy enough for a child to understand, and for a beginner to incorporate.
If you have ever struggled with meditation or mindfulness or want to get into these sorts of things, you have to read this book.
The part about this book that changed my life the most was about the visualization practice, or manifestation as others know it. The author was taught this, and through this visualization technique, he created a life beyond his wildest dreams. Let me give you some back story.
Dr Doty grew up in a broken home in poverty, with an abusive alcoholic father, a depressed suicidal mother who constantly was overdosing on pills. Dr Doty wanted to become a doctor, he knew this since he was a child. And through visualization, he credits his amazing achievements that are out of this world to this manifestation meditative practice.
If this interests you, I recommend it 100%. I rated it five stars on Goodreads and honestly think this book has so much more to offer than what I’ve just summarised.
The Thinker of the Week
Every week, I include a key historical thinker who has impacted the world through their thoughts and actions. They can vary from philosophers, artists, designers, psychologists, sociologists, writers, eastern meditators, and political theorists.
Leo Tolstoy: 1828-1910🇷🇺
Leo Tolstoy is one of the greatest Russian writers ever. He was a novelist and believed the novel was not just for entertainment but a tool for education and reform. He was born in 1829 in a luxurious family estate, which became his home until his death.
He got married to his wife Sophia when she was just 18, and he was in his thirties. They had thirteen children together, with nine surviving infacy.
His most successful books are War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and The Deathof Ivan Ilych. Tolstoy held the belief that a good work of literature should make us less judgemental and should replace religion in terms of developing our morality. He wanted to teach his readers about morals, something modern critics often ignore.
Tolstoy’s most famous book, War and Peace, published in 1869 at 41 years old is about a young and free woman named Natasha. Natasha is engaged to Andrey, but as Andrey is away in Italy, she gets seduced and nearly swooped away by a sly man named Anatole. Everyone is devastated and angry at Natasha.
Usually, by societal standards even now, we’d think Natasha was a failure, a horrible cold person.
Tolstoy tried to portray the message that she is just a normal person who makes mistakes like everyone else. Tolstoy backs Natasha up in the book and gives us a lesson he felt so strongly about:
If we could see people more accurately for who they are inside, we wouldn’t think of them as these cold people, we’d understand that they deserve to be treated kindly. No one deserves to be suffocated of sympathy, love, and forgiveness.
Tolstoy died at 80 years old, when one day he could no longer bare his marriage and family life, he abandoned his family and wife and ran away, only to catch pneumonia and die as he waited for a train. He was famed for saying “There is no greater tragedy than the tragedy of the marital bed”
Tolstoy was a revolutionary novelist who held the belief that true art was a method for making people more empathetic and showing them what actually goes on in the minds and lives of the people around us.
Thanks for reading and making it this far😊!
Don’t forget that you can comment to discuss things with me, tell me what you think, or even you can hit reply on this email.
See you next Sunday✌🏻
wow this really touched me. It included some of the things I value most in life: morals, compassion and football🙂 what a lovely article
Loved what you wrote about fate, I too believe in it. Like some things are meant to be. And I relate to signs I got all along on writing as well. I haven’t read ‘Meditations’ but it’s on my list, have you?