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The Philosophers School Is A Hospital
Focusing on the Daily Stoic Meditation for September 2 — The Philosophers School Is A Hospital, as outlined by Ryan Holiday in the bestseller 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance and the Art Of Living.
“Men, the philosopher’s lecture-hall is a hospital — you shouldn’t walk out of it feeling pleasure, but pain, for you aren’t well when you enter it.”
— EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.23.30
Healing Hurts
The philosophers school is a hospital, as outlined in the meditation, and this is because healing hurts.
Any sort of growth, development or success has to hurt — there is no easy way around this.
This doesn’t mean that you’ll feel physical pain necessarily, or that you’ll end up in the hospital due to self improvement. All this means is that healing, growing and learning pushes your boundaries and forces you to feel short-term pain for the greater good of self improvement.
Embrace the pain
Healing hurts, and you have to embrace the pain.
Dealing with past trauma, negative situations and unpleasant feelings is going to cause you pain. You’re going to want to run away from it…
