Stoicism is not primarily a system to be read but a way of life to be practiced. The school emphasized daily exercises—what Pierre Hadot later called "spiritual exercises"—designed to retrain perception, desire, and judgment. Two rituals structure the day: a morning preparation and an evening review. The morning ritual involves reflecting on the day ahead, reminding oneself of the cardinal virtues and the dichotomy of control, and anticipating potential challenges. A central practice is premeditatio malorum, the premeditation of evils: visualizing possible setbacks, frustrations, or losses so that, when they occur, we are less surprised and less troubled. Practitioners often pose a daily question: "What is in my control today, and how will I act virtuously?" A short statement of intentions—what some call a morning manifesto—sets the day's direction.
The evening ritual is the inverse of the morning one. After the day's events, the practitioner reviews what happened—what judgments were made, what actions were taken, what went well, and what could be improved. Marcus's Meditations, written for himself rather than for publication, stands as the archetypal example of Stoic journaling. The point is not self-flagellation but gradual refinement: small daily corrections accumulate into steadier character. A natural byproduct is gratitude, as the practitioner learns to name what is going well rather than fixate on what is missing. Cato the Younger, a Roman senator who took his own life rather than submit to Caesar, is often cited as an exemplar of this steady clarity.
Additional practices deepen this training. Negative visualization asks us to imagine the loss of something we currently enjoy—health, friendship, possessions—so as to appreciate it more and reduce unhealthy attachment. The "view from above" exercise pictures one's life from a cosmic vantage, gaining perspective on petty worries. Voluntary discomfort, such as cold showers or fasting, builds resilience and reminds us that most hardships we fear are bearable. The Stoic also asks, throughout the day, "What would I think and do if I were the person I want to be?"—a Stoic Test of character. The Stoic conception of love of fate, or amor fati, invites us to embrace all that happens, even adversity, while memento mori—"remember you will die"—recalls us to live with awareness of mortality. Habits formed through repetition, the Stoics insist, build virtue the way repeated movement shapes a dancer's body.