Read This When You’re Tired of Pretending

I’ve just finished Meditations by Marcus Aurelius—and if I’m being honest, I don’t think I’ll ever be done with it. It’s not the kind of book you read once…. it’s the kind that lingers, questions you, and slowly changes the way you sit with your own thoughts.

One line I keep going back to is this: “It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”

I read it often. Sometimes aloud. Sometimes like a whisper only my soul can hear. It always hooks me, pulls me inward, makes me pause and ask: What does it really mean to live?

The more I sit with this line, the more I realize—we don’t fear death nearly as much as we fear living with full awareness, full responsibility, full presence.

We’re not just afraid of death—we’re afraid of stepping into our lives without numbing, without distractions, without validation. We die a little every time we silence our inner voice to fit in. Every time we keep scrolling instead of sitting with our discomfort. Every time we say “yes” to things that betray our inner truth just to be liked, or seen, or accepted.

Before our soul leaves our body, we’ve already walked away from so many parts of ourselves.

And Marcus Aurelius knew this—not as a spiritual teacher, not as a monk—but as an emperor. A man in the thick of politics, pressure, wars, and the weight of a kingdom. Yet in the privacy of his journal, he kept writing to himself like a quiet soldier of the mind.

We’re living in an age where everything is curated for the outside world—our photos, our opinions, our lifestyles. Our calendars are full, but our minds are scattered. We're hyper-connected, yet deeply disoriented. And in this endless loop of proving, producing, and performing, we forget to simply be.

Meditations doesn’t shout. It doesn’t sell. It doesn’t promise overnight transformation. But if you let it sit with you, it will whisper truths that hit like lightning:

“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”

“The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injustice.”

“Don’t hanker after what you don’t have. Instead, fix your attentions on the finest and best that you have, and imagine how much you would long for these if they weren’t in your possession.”

It’s strange how words written centuries ago still feel more relevant than most of what we consume today. Maybe because truth doesn’t age. Maybe because the human soul still craves stillness, simplicity, and meaning—beneath all the noise.

We keep postponing our “real life” for the weekend, for the holiday, for the promotion, for the “perfect time.” But Marcus reminds us that the perfect time is now, because now is all we’re promised.

To begin living might mean:

• Speaking honestly, even if your voice shakes.

• Saying no without guilt.

• Doing work that matters to you, even if no one claps for it.

• Spending time with people who bring peace, not performance.

• Reclaiming your mornings.

It might not look impressive. But it will feel real. And that’s the point.

We fear mediocrity—but we settle into it every day when we let our lives run on autopilot. Meditations calls that out. It asks us to take ownership of our short, sacred time here.

This isn’t a feel-good read. It’s a feel-deep read. It doesn’t hand you answers—it nudges you toward your own. And it does so with a kind of ancient sincerity that doesn’t exist in today’s world of motivational hacks and life-coaching mantras.

It is a book that humbles you, QUITELY.

It doesn’t ask you to be perfect. It simply asks: Are you being who you said you wanted to be?

If you find yourself overstimulated, constantly pulled by other people’s expectations, or weighed down by the pressure to “keep up”—read Meditations. Not to escape life, but to return to it. Stronger. Softer. Clearer.

Let it sit on your bedside. Open it when you feel disconnected. And remember—we don’t need more noise. We need truth.

(The author of this blog, Shweta, is a certified NLP practitioner who loves to write about family, relationships, and her takeaways from conversations, books, and movies. She believes in soulful storytelling and finding personal meaning through everyday reflections.)