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New
thinkersThere’s nothing wrong with wanting to stay on top of things, but
according to British author and philosopher Jules Evans, it’s also
good to properly let go occasionally and lose yourself in something
less rational, such as dancing, playing sports or gardening.example, for a long time I felt it was
very important what other people
thought about me, and always had that
in the back of my mind. Once I became
aware that I was thinking like that, I was
able to critically examine that thought
and determine that it was incorrect.You’ve studied Stoic thinking
and you are a member of the
Modern Stoicism movement.
What do you like about Stoicism?
The Stoics believed that you
can remain yourself under all
circumstances if you use your mind.
It’s very important to be aware of
what you can control and what you
don’t control. According to Epictetus,
one of the best-known Stoic
philosophers, you may want to be in
control of all kinds of things—such
as your job, your parents or your
friends—but in the final analysis, you
can’t be. What you can control are >For your first book, Philosophy
for Life and Other Dangerous
Situations, you were inspired
by ancient Greek and Roman
philosophy. How did you become
interested in that?
I started researching cognitive therapy
a few years ago, because it had helped
me a lot when I was suffering from
depression. The idea behind cognitive
therapy is that your pain is not caused
by what’s happening to you so much,
but by your thoughts about it. That
really was an eye-opener for me. This
idea comes directly from the ancient
Greek philosophers, and I started
writing about them more and more. I
was working as a journalist at the time.
For my blog, I interviewed famous
philosophers such as the American
Martha Nussbaum, but also ordinary
people who have been helped by
Greek philosophy in their daily lives. I
started to read Plato and Aristotle, and
I thought, this is actually the best guide
for mental health and living the good
life that I’ve ever read.From which ancient philosopher
have you learned the most?
I find the ideas of Socrates, who lived
from around 469 to 399 BC, very
inspiring. He was the first thinker to
believe that philosophy should deal
with things that concern ordinary
people. According to Socrates, most
people live as though sleepwalking.
They don’t think about what they do or
why they do it. They just accept the
ideas of their parents and environment
without questioning them. But if they
happen to be wrong ideas, they might
cause you considerable suffering.
Socrates said it is our personal
responsibility to ‘care of our souls’.
We must critically examine the ideas
we have in our mind: which ones are
helpful and which ones aren’t. For