An HN recommended book The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine comes to mind when reading this. Here's a neat quote: We should use our reasoning abil

An HN recommended book The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine comes to mind when reading this. Here's a neat quote: We should use our reasoning ability to overcome negative emotions. We should also use our reasoning ability to master our desires, to the extent that it is possible to do so. In particular, we should use reason to convince ourselves that things such as fame and fortune aren’t worth having—not, at any rate, if what we seek is tranquility—and therefore aren’t worth pursuing. Likewise, we should use our reasoning ability to convince ourselves that even though certain activities are pleasurable, engaging in those activities will disrupt our tranquility, and the tranquility lost will outweigh the pleasure gained. The idea of practicing will-power, learning to decline known-pleasurable outcomes as a form of practice, is a well tested idea in stoic philosophy. The practice seems to suggest that there is an energetic ebb and flow of indulgence that can be countered by refining one's ability to reason.