I've been pursuing an interest in philosophy for the last year or so. For me, it's more about critical thinking and how to live the best life possible.

I became aware that in the ancient world, philosophy was a therapeutic exercise designed to help one live the best life possible. Each of the schools promised to have the answer to the question, "how do I truly flourish as a human?" I really like the Stoic ideals. For them, pursuing moral excellence resulted in living the best life possible. They made it a point not to make judgments about anything that happened that was not "up to them". Their goal was to only consider "what was up to them", and what was up to them was their own way of looking at the world. They acknowledged that they couldn't control external events, but rather only how they viewed those external events.



Anyone else come across this concept? This concept also comes up in humanistic psychology and in Maslov's hierarchy of needs.

Looking back, I can see that many, if not all of the major problems I have had in my life have been due to how I handled what was happening to me. So, in that sense, I am responsible for much of my own pain.

I'd like to get to the point where I literally don't care about what is happening outside my own judgments and actions, and where I can concentrate all my energy on being a virtuous person.