Review: A Guide to the Good life – The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy

Author: William B Irvine

Every now and then you read a book and a few pages in you know it is going to change your life.  This is such a book – I know I am going to re-read it many times in the future.  Stoicism seems right for me, and in time I might even describe myself as an unashamed Stoic.

I have been seeking a belief system that reflected my inherent beliefs.  I rejected Christianity (too much faith required) and Islam for the same reason.  The goal of Buddhism peace and tranquillity reflected what I was seeking.  The methods of finding the said peace and tranquillity did not reflect my critical and analytical nature. As Irvine himself wrote, the more I found out about Buddhism the less I liked it.  I value rumination (which is really bad for a Buddhist), and find I get my best ideas when I am ruminating.

Stoicism allows one to arrive at the same destination by a different route.  It is more cerebral and intellectual.  It encourages methods (such as negative visualisation) antithetical to contemporary psychological practice, but those methods I had already seen as ineffective in my own practice of being a person and a mental health professional.  I thought I was weird for having all these antithetical ideas about how to live life.

This will not be the last text I will read on Stoicism, and I am excited about learning more about how to practice Stoicism well and doing the Stoic exercises in my daily life.  Stoicism just seems to make sense to me.