Hello, dear friends. 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 Part Two 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.
If you've read Part One, skip straight to the quotes, eh :=) Thank you the wonderful discussion in part one.
Here is Part One: http://caucus99percent.com/content/resilience-how-stoic-marcus-aurelius-...
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

Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but it stand firm and tames the fury of the water around it. IV.49

Will then this which has happened prevent you from being just, magnanimous, temperate, prudent, secure against inconsiderate opinions and falsehood; will it prevent you from having modesty, freedom, and everything else, by the presence of which man’s nature obtains all that is its own? IV.49

In the morning when you rise unwillingly, let this thought be present: I am rising to do the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which was brought into the world? V.1

Do you not see how many qualities you are immediately able to exhibit, in which there is no excuse of natural incapacity and unfitness, and yet you still remain voluntarily below the mark? V.5

Be not disgusted, nor discouraged, nor dissatisfied, if you do not succeed in doing everything according to right principles; but when you have failed, return back again, and be content if the greater part of what you do is consistent with man’s nature, and love this to which you return. v.9

For what is more agreeable than wisdom itself, when you think of the security and the happy course of all things which depend on the faculty of understanding and knowledge? V.9

None of these things ought to be called a man’s which do not belong to a man, as man. They are not required of a man, nor does man’s nature promise them, nor are they the means of man’s nature attaining its end. V.15

Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts. Dye it then with a continuous series of thoughts as these: for instance, that where a man can live, he can live well. But he must live in a palace, well then, he can also live well in a palace. V.16

Why do unskilled and ignorant souls disturb him who has skill and knowledge? V.32

But fortunate means that a man has assigned to himself a good fortune; and a good fortune is good disposition of the soul, good emotions, good actions. V.36

The best way of avenging yourself is not to become like the wrong-doer. VI.6

Outward show is a wonderful perverter of the reason, and when you are most sure that you are employed about things worth your pains, it is then that it cheats you most. VI.13

In this flowing stream then, on which there is no abiding, what is there of the things which hurry by on which a man would set a high price? It would be just as if a man should fall in love with one of the sparrows which fly by, but it has already passed out of sight. VI.15

If any man is able to convince me and show me that I do not think and act right, I will gladly change; for I seek the truth by which no man was ever injured. But he is injured who abides in his error and ignorance. VI.21

Death is a cessation of the impressions though the senses, and of the pulling of the strings which move the appetites, and of the discursive movements of the thoughts, and of the service to the flesh. VI.28

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