Hello, dear friends, from the old loafer. I find the teachings of Stoicism a great help in strengthening my ptsd-scrambled brain. It has been universally beneficial to regular folks for 2,500 years now.
You may find it a useful, practical guide to strengthen your mind in these turbulent times.
Previously, I had written a 3-part essay series on the Stoic teachings of the Roman Epictetus that makes for a brief grounding in Stoic practical basics. You will find it in the Resilience Group Essay Queue:
http://caucus99percent.com/content/stoicism-trauma-survivors-part-13

This is the first of a four-part series on the thoughts to himself of the Roman Stoic, Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome. I present an introduction on what Aurelius means to me and then his thoughts without comment: for they speak clearly for themselves directly to the reader. More below.

Japanese Zen Garden meditative music goes (un)surprisingly well with reflection on the sayings of Marcus Aurelius - the emperor at war, alone in his commander's tent at night on the frontier.

Introduction: How Marcus Aurelius Helped Me

My Loeb edition of The Meditations is dog-eared and filled with pencil markings from long hours of studying during quiet times on military exercises and deployment.
The growing ptsd steadily overwrote the coding and chemical channels within my brain structures.
I had no understanding of what was happening within me: only growing "irrational" anger, "weird" new paranoia, psychotic breaks, and growing dread, night terrors, and daily anxieties.
I tried, unsuccessfully, to hide my problems with the usual result of alienating everyone.

I should have crashed much earlier. I am still awed by the strength of will that kept me going, one foot in front of the other, form break to break, from day to night and night to day.
Stoicism steeled the will inside of me; I literally experienced the blacksmith's sword forging processes -
the fire, the water, the blows from the hammer on the anvil, the fire, the water, the blows, every day.

I carried my paperback Stoic books in my gear or my webbing. I read them everywhere on breaks.
Because they helped me endure.
Once before a month-long exercise, which consisted mostly of digging armoured vehicles out of spring-time mud, I took the online George Long translation and copied my favourite sayings into a Word document.
This I carried in my trouser side pocket in a plastic bag and read when I felt overwhelmed.
I'm using that to share with you, hoping it could help you strengthen your mind during trying times.

Then, I learned that Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis both based cognitive-behavioural therapy on the Roman Stoics. And I went to the doctors to get help.
I've been in CBT therapy (with competent and incompetent psychologists) for ten years now.
I got the help I needed, but lost my military career to a medical release.
My diagnosis is complex and chronic. I will need CBT and Stoicism for the rest of my life.
And I am grateful for both for they saved my life, marriage, and family.

The Life of Marcus Aurelius

(The only reason this statue survived was because the heathen Christians thought it was of their Emperor Constantine!)
The life of Aurelius was fascinating and you can read about in online. Here's just the header info from wiki:

Marcus Aurelius26 April 121 – 17 March 180 AD) was Roman Emperor from 161 to 180. He ruled with Lucius Verus as co-emperor from 161 until Verus' death in 169. He was the last of the Five Good Emperors, and is also considered one of the most important Stoic philosophers.

During his reign, the Empire defeated a revitalized Parthian Empire in the East: Aurelius' general Avidius Cassius sacked the capital Ctesiphon in 164. In central Europe, Aurelius fought the Marcomanni, Quadi, and Sarmatians with success during the Marcomannic Wars, although the threat of the Germanic tribes began to represent a troubling reality for the Empire. A revolt in the East led by Avidius Cassius failed to gain momentum and was suppressed immediately.

Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, written in Greek while on campaign between 170 and 180, are still revered as a literary monument to a philosophy of service and duty, describing how to find and preserve equanimity in the midst of conflict by following nature as a source of guidance and inspiration.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius

Selections from The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

Through not observing what is in the mind of another one is seldom unhappy. II.8

What is the nature of the whole, and what is my nature, and how is this related to that? II.9

That which does not make a man worse, how can it make a man’s life worse? II.11

Death is nothing else than an operation of nature, and if any one is afraid of an operation of nature he is a child. II.12

It is sufficient to attend to the daemon within, and to reverence it sincerely. II.13

A man cannot lose either the past or the future; for what a man has not, how can any one take this from him? The present is the only thing of which a man can be deprived. II.14

Lice destroyed Democritus; and other lice killed Socrates. III.3

A man should hold on to the opinion only of those who confessedly live according to nature. III.4

A man then must stand erect, not be kept erect by others. III.5

Never desire anything that needs walls and curtains. III.7

Examine methodically and truly every object that is presented to you in life. III.11

As physicians have always their instruments and knives ready for cases that suddenly require their skill, so have principles ready for the understanding of things divine and human. III.13

No longer wander at hazard. III.14

There remains that which is peculiar to the good man, to be pleased and content with what happens, and with the thread that is spun for him; and not to defile the divinity which is planted in his breast, nor disturb it with a crowd of images, but to preserve it tranquil, following it obediently as a god, neither saying anything contrary to justice. III.16

Let no act be done without a purpose, nor otherwise than according to the perfect principles of art. IV.2
Tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind. IV.3

The universe is transformation; life is opinion. IV.3

Death is such as generation is, a mystery of nature; a composition out of the same elements, and a decomposition into the same. IV.5

Take away your opinion, and then there is taken away the complaint, “I have been harmed.” Take away the complaint, “I have been harmed,” and the harm is taken away. IV.7

Either it is a well arranged universe or a chaos huddled together, but still a universe. But can a certain order subsist in you, and disorder in the All? IV.27

Nothing is either bad or good which can happen equally to the bad man and the good. IV.39

Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things act with one movement; and how all things are the cooperating causes of all things which exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the contexture of the web. IV.40

What was yesterday a little mucus, tomorrow will be a mummy or ashes. Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature, and end thy journey in content, just as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew. IV. 48

Part Two is here: http://caucus99percent.com/content/resilience-how-stoic-marcus-aurelius-...

I look forward to your comments and reflections.
Peace be with us, if we learn to strengthen our minds,
gerrit