Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world.

You worry, you get stressed, you want to get there early, you want it to go well, you don't want anything bad to happen to your loved ones, to you, to anyone. In the tunnel vision of your anxiety, these are all the things that you can think about. They consume you. They change you. They overwhelm you. But can you right now in the calm of morning when you are not anxious, take a minute to step back.

Think about what your anxiety costs you.

Think about it honestly and painfully.

Think of the arguments it's created.

Think of the dead time it left you with at the airport.

Think of the things it made you say no to,

the things that might have been so much fun.

Think of the reputation it gave you.

Think of the damage it has you. Think of the damage

it is done to your relationships, to your self-confidence, to your ability to enjoy life. One of the

most wonderful passages in meditations is where Marcus Aurelius looks at his own troubles with worry

and fear and says, today I escaped my anxiety, or rather I discarded it,

for it is within me.

Your anxiety is within you,

worse, it is eating at you and harming you.

It does not make your life better.

No, it comes at the expense of life,

which is why we must, as best you can,

let it go, not let it control us,

not let it take from us the things that we can never get back.

Maybe you've been hearing the buzz about live shopping lately. I know I have. And it makes sense.

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