You’ll face a variety of circumstances in your life. But how you face those circumstances can either help you find your best life or it can weigh you down. The circumstances you find yourself in can sometimes call for you to make fast decisions. 

When you practice mindfulness, you’ll learn how to cut through the inner dialogue in your brain to find the ability to trust your gut or intuition. When you trust your intuition, you’ll discover that you’re making better decisions about all of the areas of your life. 

Enchiridion 18 states “When a raven happens to croak unluckily, don't allow the appearance hurry you away with it, but immediately make the distinction to yourself, and say, "None of these things are foretold to me; but either to my paltry body, or property, or reputation, or children, or wife. But to me all omens are lucky, if I will. For whichever of these things happens, it is in my control to derive advantage from it."

Far too often, we tend to think of anger as emotion that we shouldn’t have. But anger is simply an emotion. It’s what you do with that anger than can become something that it shouldn’t be. 

If you get angry and lash out physically at someone, that’s the kind of anger that’s harmful. But normal, non-violent anger is a tool that everyone has that can help their life to be better. 

Seneca writes in Moral Letters 18.15 But indeed this emotion blazes out against all sorts of persons; it springs from love as much as from hate, and shows itself not less in serious matters than in jest and sport. And it makes no difference how important the provocation may be, but into what kind of soul it penetrates. Similarly with fire; it does not matter how great is the flame, but what it falls upon. For solid timbers have repelled a very great fire; conversely, dry and easily inflammable stuff nourishes the slightest spark into a conflagration. So it is with anger, my dear Lucilius; the outcome of a mighty anger is madness, and hence anger should be avoided, not merely that we may escape excess, but that we may have a healthy mind 

The attitude that a person has is based on their thought patterns and linked with emotions. It can be displayed as actions. Negative attitudes often have a foundation of resentfulness at their core. 

This resentment can be caused by a person’s point of view of themselves, of other people or toward life in general. If you struggle with negative attitudes, you’ll want to deal with it as soon as possible. 

Moral Letters 53.7-8 states The opposite holds true of diseases of the soul; the worse one is, the less one perceives it. You need not be surprised, my beloved Lucilius. For he whose sleep is light pursues visions during slumber, and sometimes, though asleep, is conscious that he is asleep; but sound slumber annihilates our very dreams and sinks the spirit down so deep that it has no perception of self. Why will no man confess his faults? Because he is still in their grasp; only he who is awake can recount his dream, and similarly a confession of sin is a proof of sound mind.

One of the reasons why we fail to listen to people is because we fail to listen to ourselves. We’re so busy and so distracted that it’s easy to get lost inside our own heads and constantly move on to the next thought, the next task, and the next person. 

As stated in Discourses 3.16.7 You must therefore be carried along by the crowd. And why are they more powerful than you? Because they utter their corrupt discourses from sincere opinion, and you your good ones only from your lips. Hence they are without strength or life; and it is disgusting to hear your exhortations and your poor miserable virtue proclaimed up hill and down.

But Stoicism can help you achieve the place where you can learn how to listen.  

Some people worry about little things, some people worry about big things and others worry about everything. Sometimes worry can be a tool used to prod you to do your best at a task, but constant worrying is a problem because it holds you back by keeping you stuck in negative thoughts and emotions.

Meditations 12.19 states “Won’t you, at last, perceive, that you have something more excellent and divine within you, than that which raises the several passions, and moves you, as the wires do a puppet, without your own approbation? What now is my intellectual part? Is it fear? Is it suspicion? Is it lust? Is it any such thing?

There’s no denying that having chaos in your life is going to happen. It might not be a constant, but it will happen. When chaos does occur, some people run around in a state of anxiety or panic. 

They don’t know what to do and how to calm the chaos. Regardless of what type of chaos you’ve experienced or are going through now, Stoicism can help. It lets you be in charge and not your emotions or your thoughts. 

Discourses 1.25.27-29 states “Do not insist on seeing it, O man! and you will not be crushed. Why do you vex yourself? Or wait a little while; and when the show is over, go sit in the senators’ places, and sun yourself. For remember, that this holds universally; we crush and torment ourselves; that is, our own preconceived notions do it for us. What is it to be reviled, for instance? Stand by a stone, and revile it; and what will you get by it? If you, therefore, would listen only as a stone, what would your reviler gain? But, if the reviler has the weakness of the reviled for a vantage-ground, then he carries his point.”

Using mindfulness as you walk or run can help quiet anxious thoughts, bring your emotions under control and keep your thoughts centered on the present. When you do this, you’ll gain the ability to release the feelings that are causing you to feel stress. 

By learning how to control your mind while you’re exercising, you’ll be benefiting yourself physically and mentally. You’ll need to keep your mind focused as you’re walking. 

Seneca writes in Moral Letters 104. 6. So you are curious to know the outcome of this prescription of travel? As soon as I escaped from the oppressive atmosphere of the city, and from that awful odour of reeking kitchens which, when in use, pour forth a ruinous mess of steam and soot, I perceived at once that my health was mending. And how much stronger do you think I felt when I reached my vineyards! Being, so to speak, let out to pasture, I regularly walked into my meals! So I am my old self again, feeling now no wavering languor in my system, and no sluggishness in my brain. I am beginning to work with all my energy.

There are countless people who struggle with chronic pain. Sometimes the pain is caused from a medical condition and sometimes it’s a result of experiencing damage to the body through an accident or abuse. 

Most people are familiar with dealing with the stress of the pain that feel in their body. But, chronic pain doesn’t simply affect the body. It can also impact how you feel emotionally. 

If it’s left untreated, chronic pain can wear on a person so deeply that they can begin to feel depressed 

You need something more than that. By using Stoicism, not only can you find relief for your physical symptoms, but you can also find help for the emotional side effects that are common when you have to live with chronic pain. 

Seneca writes in Letter 67.3-4 You ask me whether every good is desirable. You say: "If it is a good to be brave under torture, to go to the stake with a stout heart, to endure illness with resignation, it follows that these things are desirable. But I do not see that any of them is worth praying for. At any rate I have as yet known of no man who has paid a vow by reason of having been cut to pieces by the rod, or twisted out of shape by the gout, or made taller by the rack."  My dear Lucilius, you must distinguish between these cases; you will then comprehend that there is something in them that is to be desired. I should prefer to be free from torture; but if the time comes when it must be endured, I shall desire that I may conduct myself therein with bravery, honour, and courage. Of course I prefer that war should not occur; but if war does occur, I shall desire that I may nobly endure the wounds, the starvation, and all that the exigency of war brings. Nor am I so mad as to crave illness; but if I must suffer illness, I shall desire that I may do nothing which shows lack of restraint, and nothing that is unmanly. The conclusion is, not that hardships are desirable, but that virtue is desirable, which enables us patiently to endure hardships.

Not many people like the world vulnerable. The reason they don’t like the word is because they think that being vulnerable means being easy prey for the strong. So instead of embracing vulnerability, we tend to shy away from it. 

But vulnerability isn’t a bad thing when you know how to use Stoic practices. When you practice Stoicism, it doesn’t mean that you’ll be protected from ever being hurt again. It means that you’re going to live your life with abundance and in the present regardless of what “might” happen if you open yourself up. 

Discourses 4.3.5-7 states A pilot does not need so much apparatus to overturn a ship as to save it; but if he exposes it a little too much to the wind, it is lost; even if he should not do it by design, but only for a moment be thinking of something else, it is lost. Such is the case here, too. If you do but nod a little, all that you have hitherto accomplished is gone. Take heed, then, to the appearances of things. Keep yourself watchful over them. It is no inconsiderable matter that you have to guard; but modesty, fidelity, constancy, docility, innocence, fearlessness, serenity; in short, freedom.

In any ways the practice of Stoicism is like reprogamming your mind or thought process. Ways we may think how to think or act are not aligned with Stoicism.

Stoic practice requires a measure of motivation. Sometimes it is difficult to see the improvement and life changes it brings.  

Moral Letters 23.4-5 states Real joy, believe me, is a stern matter. Can one, do you think, despise death with a care-free countenance, or with a "blithe and gay" expression, as our young dandies are accustomed to say? Or can one thus open his door to poverty, or hold the curb on his pleasures, or contemplate the endurance of pain? He who ponders these things in his heart is indeed full of joy; but it is not a cheerful joy. It is just this joy, however, of which I would have you become the owner; for it will never fail you when once you have found its source. The yield of poor mines is on the surface; those are really rich whose veins lurk deep, and they will make more bountiful returns to him who delves unceasingly. So too those baubles which delight the common crowd afford but a thin pleasure, laid on as a coating, and even joy that is only plated lacks a real basis. But the joy of which I speak, that to which I am endeavouring to lead you, is something solid, disclosing itself the more fully as you penetrate into it.

Motivation is one of the most important factors that will drive you to succeed. When you lose it, you’re in danger of permanently failing and losing track of your goal.