Stoicism · The Stoic Way, part 16 of 20 · 4 October 2026 · Charlotte Himsworth
The View from Above
Seeing our troubles from the mountaintop.
When life feels overwhelming, the Stoics had a beautiful practice: to rise, in imagination, above it all.
Rising higher
Marcus Aurelius often pictured the world from a great height: cities and fields, crowds and quarrels, the great sweep of time in which every life is a brief moment. From there, many of our worries look very small.
Not to make us feel small
The aim is not to make our lives feel unimportant. It is to restore proportion. The argument that consumed our morning, the email we dread, the opinion of a stranger: seen from above, they take their true size.
Belonging to something greater
The view from above also reminds us that we are part of something vast: one human family, one living world. That can be deeply comforting. We are never as alone as we feel.
A meeting of two circles
In the language of this site, it is a meeting of the small circle of our daily concerns with the great circle of the whole. Where they meet, peace becomes possible.
A simple practice
Close your eyes. Picture yourself in your room, then your home from above, your town, your country, the Earth turning in space. Hold your worry gently in that larger view for a minute. Then return, and ask what truly matters today.