Sundays with Seneca
Welcome to Sundays with Seneca on the Perennial Meditations podcast. Join the search for ancient lessons on the art of living from the writings and Stoic philosophy of Lucius Annaeus Seneca.
If you’d like our Sundays with Seneca episode, along with access to 100+ member-only meditations on the art of living, consider becoming a member today.
On Rest and Restlessness
In a letter known today as On Rest and Restlessness, Seneca wrote,
I do not like you to change your headquarters and scurry about from one place to another. My reasons are—first, that such frequent movement means an unsteady spirit. And the spirit cannot through retirement grow into unity unless it has ceased from its inquisitiveness and its wanderings. To be able to hold your spirit in check, you must first stop the runaway flight of the body.
My second reason is, that the remedies which are most helpful are those which are not interrupted. You should not allow your quiet, or the oblivion to which you have consigned your former life, to be broken into. Give your eyes time to unlearn what they have seen, and your ears to grow accustomed to more wholesome words. Whenever you stir abroad you will meet, even as you pass from one place to another, things that will bring back your old cravings. […]
Listen to this episode with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Perennial Meditations to listen to this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.