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 are responsible for how they make you feel. It wasn't a nice thing to say. It wasn't a good thing to do. They suck for doing it.

Perhaps they're a person to steer clear of, like the metaphorical or perhaps literal boxer that

Marcus Aurelius talked about, the one who gouges and bites in the ring. But you know what?

It's still your fault if it makes you feel bad, if it provokes an

angry response from you in turn. At the core of stoicism is this idea that our emotions are our

responsibility. No one can make us frustrated. No one can offend us either, Epictetus said, not without us being complicit in the

taking of offense. Our job, as we have said many times here, is to pause and reflect after someone

says or does something. It's to ask ourselves who this person we're about to let in our head is, whether we really

need to consent to the injury of the second arrow. We can shrug this off. We can move on. We can

focus our mind elsewhere. We can decide not to be like them. That's our responsibility.

What I try to do when I hear the thing, when I see the thing, when I get the email about the thing, is I try to pause and reflect, right?

That's what stoicism is.

I see this.

I have this feeling.

But do I trust this feeling?

Do I like what this feeling is evoking

in me? Is this feeling true? Seneca said, we should look in the mirror, see what that

expression looks like on us. That's obviously what we built, the daily stoic pause and reflect

medallion around. It's a little reminder to have in your pocket. If you have a little

problem with your temper, which I think we all do, it's just a great reminder. It's got all the

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