Book Review: Meditations
If ancient Rome did wellness journals, then this book would be the result. I’ve never read a book where it felt like every other line was ‘get it together!’ Marcus Aurelius was an emperor and “philosopher” I put that in quotation marks because this did read like a wellness manifestation journal, albeit a little more eloquent. I don’t think he was an incense and crystals girlie, cursing Mercury for going into retrograde again whilst balancing blue lace agate on his chakras. Now, this book was recommended to me as ‘the only self-help book I’ll ever need’. And I’m not sure if they were right, but there were some fabulous little tidbits in there. I do realise that this was written during a very different time and nearly 2 millennia ago, so some of the tidbits are… peculiar to say the least.
That being said, I like how this book is easily digestible -unlike some of the philosophy books I’ve read in the past… I’m looking at you, Spinoza, where I honestly wanted to chuck the book out the window. Okay, that's being dramatic; I most likely rolled my eyes. But the thoughts and ideas were sorted into smaller paragraphs within books, which was handy, and it made a lot of the ideas stand out a lot more, for example, this beauty: “Imagine you were now dead, or had not lived before this moment. Now view the rest of your life as a bonus, and live it as nature directs”. Essentially, I understood this as, forget what has come before - that should not direct your future. Your future is yours to live as you want; the future is everything. Leave the past where it belongs - behind you. As someone who has had a series of ups and downs over the past few years, this is a refreshing way to look at life, stop looking back and try and look forward. You might just miss it.
Another thought I had whilst reading this was that this is the antithesis of ‘The Prince’ by Niccolo Machiavelli. Whilst Machiavelli is teaching “it is better to be feared than loved”, Marcus is more “love only what falls your way and is fated for you. What could suit you more than that?” Not 100% sure Julius Caesar would agree with that, but that's not the point of this paragraph. I think it’s also clear - I don't always know what I’m doing. But then again, that's what wellness/self-care books are for -to figure things out and I think Marcus Aurelius nailed it.
I cannot garuantee that Marcus Aurelius did get his provebial shit together in the end, but his thoughts and feelings on life, ways of living and how to live with other people has stood the test of time. So gotta give credit where credit is due. Or just do what I do and write a somewhat unhinged book review. The world's your oyster, what could suit you more than that?