On Examining Yourself Deeply
It's day 223 of documenting 2025.
Another Monday, in another week...
And we're getting closer to the end of this month...
Eventually, the end of this year.
Time flies 😌
Our Monday Meditations are in order...as I'll share some lessons in a bit.
But I think I haven't mentioned this:
I reopened my X account.
Okay to be specific, I came back to X on Friday last week...and so far, I have 3 followers now.
Hasn't even been a week yet!
Why am I sharing this?
Point is, I opened my X account in May, but I was quickly overwhelmed because of the other online engagements I had then.
And I didn't have the level of clarity on what I want to do...like I have now.
3 months away? Not so bad 🙂
I'm not clamoring for followers this time....or chasing visibility.
I'm just sharing what I need to, in my quiet little corner...no need for me to scream into the ocean of X.
My people will find me.
By the way, if you would like to check out my profile, here it is:
That aside, I'm feeling pretty hopeful about the days ahead.
A thought crossed my mind for a moment,
"After Documenting 2025, what next?"
I still plan to continue blogging....and it may not be daily.
Anyhow it is, I won't stop writing.
My admission is still pending...as the registration hasn't ended yet.
Fingers crossed 🤞🏼
Okay....let's get into Highlights for today, and then we move to the lessons from the writings of a Roman Emperor.
365 Days With Self-discipline
📌 On Clear Cues and Rewards
People who have successfully started new exercise routines show they are more likely to stick with a workout plan if they choose a specific cue, such as running as soon as they get home from work, and a clear reward, such as a beer or an evening of guilt-free television.
Quote by Charles Duhigg
According to bestselling author Charles Duhigg, a habit consists of a cue (a signal to perform a habit), a routine (action), and a reward for engaging in the habit.
This loop, when repeated over and over again, creates an automatic behavior.
When creating new habits, make sure that you have clear cues and rewards.
This will help you introduce new routines with less resistance
Some effective cues include: another habit (like engaging in a positive habit after you finish brushing your teeth), a certain place (like getting back home after work and immediately sitting down to work on your side business for an hour), or a certain time (each day at 6 p.m. you spend fifteen minutes stretching).
Habits...routine...consistency.
The book I read that really helped me understand the concept of routines is titled, Habit Stacking by S.J Scott.
You should check it out 🙂
Moving on...
Meditations
📌 Book 5
10. Things are wrapped in such a veil of mystery that many good philosophers have found it impossible to make sense of them. Even the Stoics have trouble.
Any assessment we make is subject to alteration—just as we are ourselves.
Look closely at them—how impermanent they are, how meaningless.
Things that a pervert can own, a whore, a thief.
Then look at the way the people around you behave. Even the best of them are hard to put up with—not to mention putting up with yourself. In such deep darkness, such a sewer—in the flux of material, of time, of motion and things moved—I don’t know what there is to value or to work for.
Quite the contrary. We need to comfort ourselves and wait for dissolution. And not get impatient in the meantime, but take refuge in these two things:
i. Nothing can happen to me that isn’t natural.
ii. I can keep from doing anything that God and my own spirit don’t approve. No one can force me to.
11. What am I doing with my soul?
Interrogate yourself, to find out what inhabits your so-called mind and what kind of soul you have now.
A child’s soul, an adolescent’s, a woman’s? A tyrant’s soul? The soul of a predator—or its prey?
12. Another way to grasp what ordinary people mean by “goods”:
Suppose you took certain things as touchstones of goodness: prudence, self-control, justice, and courage, say.
If you understood “goods” as
meaning those, you wouldn’t be able to follow that line about “so many goods. . . .” It wouldn’t make any sense to you.
Whereas if you’d internalized the conventional meaning, you’d be able to follow it perfectly.
You’d have no trouble seeing the author’s meaning and why it was funny.
Which shows that most people do acknowledge a distinction.
Otherwise we wouldn’t recognize the first sense as jarring and reject it automatically, whereas we accept the second—the one referring to wealth and the benefits of celebrity and high living—as amusing and apropos.
Now go a step further. Ask yourself whether we should accept as goods—and should value—the things we have to think of to have the line make sense—the ones whose abundance leaves their owner with “. . . no place to shit.”
13. I am made up of substance and what animates it, and neither one can ever stop existing, any more than it began to.
Every portion of me will be
reassigned as another portion of the world, and that in turn transformed into another. Ad infinitum.
I was produced through one such transformation, and my parents too, and so on back. Ad infinitum.
N.B.: Still holds good, even if the world goes through recurrent cycles.
Nope....I didn't understand what these excerpts mean on a deeper level, and I asked for an interpretation. Here's the breakdown:
10. He's facing the chaos and moral confusion of the world.
He admits even the wisest philosophers struggle to make sense of it.
When even corrupt people own the things we chase, like wealth or status, it calls their value into question.
So instead of getting lost in frustration, he clings to two steady truths:
—Nothing can happen that isn’t part of nature’s plan.
—And he still has full control over his own actions and values.
Key lesson: When the world seems senseless, stay grounded in your nature and your integrity.
11. Here, Marcus turns inward and asks: "What kind of soul do I carry right now?"
Is it immature, reactive, controlling, passive, or predatory?
He’s calling for deep self-examination.
Key lesson: Who we are is revealed not by what we claim; but by how we think, feel, and respond. Know your inner posture.
12. This is a reflection on what people call “good.”
If we say goodness is character; like justice, courage, or wisdom, then wealth and fame don't fit that definition.
Yet society calls wealth “good” all the time, even jokes about having "so much" of it that it’s absurd.
Marcus is pointing out the disconnect.
Key lesson: Redefine what’s truly good. Most people praise the wrong things without realizing how shallow that is.
13. He reflects on life as a cycle of transformation.
Your body, soul, even your ancestors—everything came from something and will return to something. He sees no final destruction, only change.
Key lesson: You are not lost; you are re-formed. There is comfort in accepting the impermanence and constant renewal of existence.
Well, that's all for the breakdown.
I hope you understand the lessons for today...like I did.
They're either lessons or reminders to bear in mind.
If you got to this point, thank you for reading 🎀
This is another day lived, in 2025.
There's more to come, and I hope they're better days.
I remain Duon Ada, the lady behind the screen.
I'm still documenting 2025,
And I'll see you tomorrow
Ciao 💕
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