E106 Ryan Bush Ancient Philosophy Relevant Today
Let’s Be Well Together Podcast - Episode 106
Date: February 6, 2024
Participants: Elise Seifert, Sheila Webster, John Webster, Cameron Earnshaw and Stephen Seifert
Guest: Ryan A Bush
Start Times and Segments:
[0:00:16] What’s On Your Mind: Reading literature takes us to different worlds and situations. It enhances mental health. We see it as an investment in ourselves. Sheila and Elise chat about their favourite genres and what they get out of it.
[0:9:24] Expanding Minds Interview: [Intellectual Wellness] We interview Ryan A Bush about practical philisophy. John’s always felt a connection with philosophy. He met a kindred spirt. Ryan Bush chats about practical philosophy and how ancient philosophy is relevant to our everyday life. Human nature and the human mind haven’t changed much in tens of thousands of years. The insights of ancient philosophers are just as relevant now. Philosophy means love of wisdom. That’s what it was about in ancient times – happiness and living a better life. Most of what people study in academic philosophy is not practical philosophy in the sense that you can use it to live a better life. There’s misconception centred around ancient philosophy. For example, stoicism isn’t about white knuckling through everything and not showing emotion. Stoicism is about cultivating greater control over our emotions. That doesn’t mean not having them. It means domesticating them. Getting them to where they serve you, instead of sabotaging you. That’s a really beautiful thing. The stoics realized that our emotions do not react directly to the events in our lives. Rather, they are mediated by our thoughts. They talk about how you can change your interpretation. If someone insults you, they don’t actually hurt you. Only your own thoughts can do that. You’ll only suffer over it if you believe what they’re saying, or if you allow them to weaken your own mental strength. Marcus Aurelius wrote Meditations a journal to himself. It’s packed with insight after insight after insight. You can just pick it up and open to a random page and point, and whatever you point to is pretty much going to speak to you and be full of wisdom. It’s extremely relevant today.
[0:25:44] Adventures of the Starving Artist: Cameron headed to open mic to play fun songs, after a busy week of learning songs as part of the business.
[0:30:10] Move That Body: Sheila heard about a February challenge to do 2000 push ups. It’s a good thing 2024 is a leap year. She has one extra day to get it done.
[0:34:48] Running Popup: Listening to an audiobook on the run. A relationship lesson from Tris and Four is one that’s worked for us. From the Divergent series by Veronica Roth.
[0:37:49] Flipside of the Coin: Elise and Stephen talk about food from other countries. Today it’s all about Korean food from their time living in Korea. They had memorable experiences.
Quotes and Take-Aways:
Ryan – From a very early age I was wired to ask the big questions. I asked them by myself for a long time. I was inquiring into my own mind, seeing what I could observe in changes in my own thought patterns and emotions. I took notes and started to figure a lot of this stuff out. At some point I discovered philosophy. It got me so curious.
Ryan – I started discovering the really good stuff, which to me is practical philosophy. I realized that all the notes I took, which I thought were so original, there were thinkers who had beat me to them by 2000 years roughly. The stoics, the Buddhists, Nietzsche, all these different thinkers had many of the same insights I stumbled across. They developed them in much greater depth and more eloquently. My work shifted from thinking “I’m going to develop all of these original insights on transforming our minds” to “I’m going to curate a lot of these insights that are already out there and that most people don’t know about.”
Ryan – Human nature and the human mind haven’t fundamentally changed in the last ten to twenty thousand years. In some way the ancient philosophers had the same insights into these things, as we do. They didn’t have the same modern research, but these thinkers were examining our minds and the human experience. They were observing insights that are just as relevant to us now.
Ryan – If you read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, with a newer translation such as the one by Gregory Hays, it feels like someone is talking to you right now. It’s a journal you could have written. It’s really an incredible thing when you find a philosopher who resonates with you very closely.
Ryan – The meaning of the word philosophy is the love of wisdom. That is what it was about in ancient times. It was about happiness and living a better life. Most of what people study in an academic philosophy program is not practical philosophy in the sense that you can use it to live a better life.
Ryan – Back in Aristotle’s day, ethics meant something different. It was about excellence and happiness and living a life that goes well for you. At some point it became about pointing fingers and transgressions and following the laws of a judge who would evaluate you in the afterlife. Even people who aren’t religious tend to inherit a lot of ideas that are legalistic in nature. What is my moral obligation? What ought I to do? I don’t believe this is the right way to think about it. I think Aristotle had it right in that we should ask first and foremost how can I progress my existing motivation? What is the best way to achieve what I already want?
Ryan – The cultivation of wisdom is about asking myself when I achieve something, whether I achieved the internal results I wanted in my mind? What can I do that would better serve that outcome. When you get better at serving your own self-interest in the way that ancient ethics was centered around, it ends up looking a lot like morality. You end up living an increasingly saintly life, because you end up understanding the consequences of your actions. You feel much better about yourself when you help other people. It feels good to do things that are considered moral, but you don’t have to sacrifice yourself to do them. You’re serving yourself by doing the right thing.
Ryan – Stoicism is a go-to for me. Stoicism is not about white knuckling through everything and not showing emotion. There’s misconception centred around ancient philosophy. Stoicism is about cultivating greater control over your emotions. That doesn’t mean not having them. It means domesticating them. Getting them to where they serve you, instead of sabotaging you. That’s a really beautiful thing.
Ryan – The stoics realized that our emotions do not react directly to the events in our lives. They don’t react directly to what’s happening to us. Rather, they are mediated by our thoughts. That means we have a huge lever to control our emotions through the way we interpret what’s happening to us, and the stories we tell ourselves. The stoics talk about how you can change your interpretation. If someone insults you, they don’t actually hurt you. Only your own thoughts can do that. You’ll only suffer over it if you believe what they’re saying, or if you allow them to weaken your own mental strength.
Ryan – Marcus Aurelius wrote Meditations a journal to himself. It’s packed with insight after insight after insight. You can just pick it up and open to a random page and point, and whatever you point to is pretty much going to speak to you and be full of wisdom. It’s extremely relevant today.
Bulletin Board Quote brought to you by Elise: It was involuntary tears streaming down our faces [ha ha]
Guest Information: Ryan A Bush is a thinker, author and designer focused on building better systems, better people, and a better future. His background is in the design of systems. He’s worked with tech startups to design and develop everything from physical products to software, to buildings, to business models. He’s had a lifelong interest in introspective investigation, ravenous reading, and obsessive self-optimization. For many years, Ryan has studied the insights of ancient teachers, practical philosophers and cognitive scientists. He’s written two books – The first – Designing the Mind – helps readers understand the workings of their own minds and the keys to sculpting them. The second – Become Who You Are – is about the psychology of well-being and concepts connected with Happiness.
Links to Ryan’s books:
Become Who You Are: A New Theory of Self-Esteem, Human Greatness, and the Opposite of Depression
The Book of Self Mastery: Timeless Quotes About Knowing, Changing, and Mastering Yourself
Link to Mindform community: https://mindform.io/
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(-(-_(-_-)_-)-) Your wellness check-in team
John, Sammy, Cameron, Sheila, Elise, Isabelle, Noura and Julie