Cheer for Everyone: Seneca’s Guide to Community Success

Salutations everyone. It is October the 6th and our intention for today, I will practice humility acknowledging that I am always a student. I will practice humility acknowledging that I am always a student. I will practice humility acknowledging that I am always a student. And for the daily stoic, looking out for each other. It's in keeping with nature to show our friends affection and to celebrate their advancement as if it were our very own. For if we don't do this, virtue, which is strengthened only by exercising our perceptions, will no longer endure in us. Seneca Moral Letters 109 and 15 Watching other people succeed is one of the toughest things to do, especially if we are not doing well ourselves. In our hunter-gatherer minds, we suspect that life is a zero-sum game, that for someone to have more means that we might end up with less. But like all parts of philosophy, empathy and selflessness are a matter of practice. As Seneca observed, it's possible to learn to rejoice in all their successes and be moved by their every failure. This is what a virtuous person does. They teach themselves to actively cheer for other people, even in cases where that It might come at their own expense. And to put aside jealousy and possessiveness, you can do that too. Once you are in an abundance mindset and you know that there is plenty for everybody out here, as long as you're putting forth the effort and you are in the right mindset. But if you are like hoping for people to downfall or because you see somebody else having success, and it makes you angry or sad, there's no reason for that. Because we, as previously stated, we are all in this together. We are all one big community at the end of the day. So if somebody else wins, we win. And if you fill yourself with the energy of us winning because somebody else wins, eventually you'll get your win too have a good day.