Marcus Aurelius
on Recovery
The Meditations were never meant to be published. They were Marcus Aurelius's private notes to himself, written during the hardest years of his reign. They read that way: honest, sometimes weary, always trying.
On self-discipline and appetite
You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength. The urge is an outside event. Your response to it is not.
Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect. The cost of drinking is precisely this - not always the external consequences, but the internal ones.
The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are. Equanimity first. Then honest assessment.
On starting again after failure
Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one. There is no more useful instruction for the day after a relapse. The argument is over. The only question is what you do next.
Our life is what our thoughts make it. Not what our history makes it. Not what our worst moments make it. The daily practice of thought, of examination - this is where the life is made.
On daily practice
Confine yourself to the present. Not the history of the addiction. Not the imagined difficulty of permanent sobriety. Today. This hour. What is in front of you right now.
When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest. He wrote this to prepare for difficulty, not to cultivate cynicism. Expecting difficulty means you are not surprised by it.
"The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way."Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
The Insight Tool
The Insight Tool applies Marcus Aurelius and other Stoic thinkers to the specific moment you are in right now.
Open the toolMarcus Aurelius wrote that the inner life - thoughts, judgments, and responses - is the only domain of genuine control. External events, including urges and appetites, are not in our direct command. What we do with them is.
You have power over your mind, not outside events. Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one. Confine yourself to the present. The impediment to action advances action. All apply directly.
Yes. Meditations was written during sustained adversity. The practical tools Aurelius developed for managing his own mind under pressure apply directly to addiction and recovery.
Meditations is available online for free. The Gregory Hays translation (2002) is the most readable modern version. The Robin Hard translation is also excellent.
Not medical advice. A philosophical companion to recovery.