Hey, prime members. You can listen to the Daily Stoic podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today.

Welcome to the Daily Stoic podcast where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom every day life.

Each one of these passages is based on the 2000 year old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more you can visit us at DailyStoic.com.

You need to arm yourself with these weapons. In Greek mythology characters go through a catabassus, a going down, something that forces them into retreat to experience a breaking point or in some cases they literally descend into the underworld.

When they emerge it's with heightened knowledge and understanding. These moments are painful but essential.

Although to be driven back upon oneself, Joan Didian once wrote, is an uneasy affair at best. It seems to me now the one condition necessary.

When you study the lives of the Stoics you see that they each went through something like that. Zeno's shipwreck, Marcus's early life which was all but defined by loss.

Seneca's two exiles and the reckoning after years of service to Nero. Musoneus being exiled four times.

Epic Titus is violent and depraved master twisting his leg with all his might and crippling him. The circumstances vary but the knowledge emerged does not.

Scott Herbert perfectly captured this when we interviewed him for the Daily Stoic a while back. At a particularly low moment in life he left his home in the city and went to work on a small scale vegetable farm with no experience farming, destructive habits to boot Scott quickly found he was at a breaking point.

He described it as fighting a hydra, a battle with no end. Eventually you're struck by the monster he said and while you're lying there exhausted coughing up your own blood you reflect on the choices that brought you here and you find the weapons you need.

What are those weapons? The Stoics would say courage, self control, justice, wisdom, courage to attack self control to stay focused to know your limits, justice to do the right things, wisdom to learn to see clearly, to know what that right thing is and what your limits are and what to attack.

Xeno used those weapons to recover from his loss. I made a prosperous voice you would later say when I suffered shipwreck. Marcus, Santa, Epic Titus, they too fought back, stayed strong, did what was right, kept themselves in check. If you find anything better than those four virtues Marcus said it must be an extraordinary thing indeed.

Look, you don't need to wait for a catabassus or a hydra to find you. As Scott said, I didn't have to start a farm. I just needed to look inside myself and so that's the question for you. Are you armed and ready and are you looking within?

And of course, the four virtues are an idea we have emblazoned on our four virtues going in the daily stoke store, which you can check out at store at dailystoke.com.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the daily stoke early and add free on Amazon music, download the Amazon music app today, or you can listen early and add free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts.

Amazon Pickup is a convenient and secure way to collect your Amazon parcels from locations near you. Help keep gifts a surprise when you choose to pick up from an Amazon locker or counter. Passels can be picked up on your schedule and you can rest assured knowing that your packages are kept safe and secure.

Plus, there's no additional cost to use an Amazon locker or counter. Find a convenient pickup point near your home, work or the places you already visit.

Amazon Pickup is the worry free option for the times when home delivery isn't ideal to find your nearest pick up location or to learn more. Go to amazon.co.uk slash wondry. That's amazon.co.uk slash w on d.

We all why many of us assume that happiness is something that happens to us that it's a matter of luck, but what modern science has shown is that in fact happiness is not some unalterable factory setting. It's actually a skill that you can train.

And if I do say so myself, my podcast is a great place to learn how to train the skill. Hello, I'm Dan Harris, host of the 10% happier podcast every week. I speak with meditation gurus, top scientists, even the odd celebrity about how to do life better.

I recently traveled 7000 miles to spend two weeks in the orbit of his holiness, the Dalai Lama, probably the world's most famous meditator and happiness guru.

...