Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoke Podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today.

Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoke Podcast. On Thursdays, we do double duty, not just reading our daily meditation,

but also reading a passage from the book, The Daily Stoke, 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living,

which I wrote with my wonderful co-author and collaborator, Stephen Hanselman.

And so today we'll give you a quick meditation from one of the Stoics from Epititus Marks,

really a Seneca, then some analysis for me, and then we send you out into the world to do your best to

turn these words into works.

Now is the time to be kind. The thing about stress and struggle is that it

hardens us. It makes us turn inward. With more than expected on our plate, we have less time, less patience,

less sympathy for others. We're dealing with our own problems, trying to keep those closest to a

safe, just trying to get through it ourselves. While this makes sense from a self-preservation

standpoint, it's also a bit self-defeating, because the more we focus on our own problems, the larger

they become, the more we think about ourselves, the more pain and anger and despair we can feel.

So one of the things you can do today is think about how you can be of use, how you can be of service.

Imagine James Stockdale in that prison camp in Vietnam, that real world laboratory of

Epititus as he called it, and what was he trying to do there to distract himself from the pain

and the worry he was thinking about his men, he was trying to help. He united them in common cause

together. U.S., he liked to say, unity over self. That's what Aesthoic does. That's what you need to do.

Moe your neighbor's lawn. Call your elderly grandfather. Donate some money. Cheer your kids up.

Pick up some trash you see in the park. Respond kindly to that person being negative

or partisan on social media. Wherever there is a person, Senika said there is an opportunity

for kindness. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, there is an opportunity to do good,

...