This podcast is entitled How to Protect My Peace and the literary master featured today is Francis Burney. Born in 1752, Francis Burney was one of Jane Austen's favorite authors. 2:08 Jane grew up reading Bernie's novels Evelina and Cecilia, and drew inspiration from them for her own works. When considering these two authors in greater detail, we can see the satirical standard that Bernie said, which Jane was to adopt and draw so heavily upon. 2:32 So another satirist, great. And if you're interested in listening to any of the works of Jane Austen, of course, you know to look out for my audiobooks wherever you listen to audiobooks and you can hear Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility. 2:54 And next week I shall be starting Evelina. This is an epistolary novel by Frances Burney in which the drama takes place through a thread of satirical letters that begins on Insight Timer next week. 3:13 How exciting and it's fun. I really enjoy reading it. Also, don't forget to look out for my upcoming video lessons and courses. And a quick side note, if you like what you hear and wish to support the Female Start podcast as an educational endeavour, I would be very grateful if you would vote for me as I have been nominated in the Women Podcasters Award under the category Education this year. 3:46 The link will be dropped in the show notes and of course, when looking, clicking on that link and looking for me, you will find me in the drop down menu for education. But first of all, the question of the day, which we will relate everything to in this episode. 4:07 And as always, look out for the journal task at the end. Our questioner is anonymous this week, but she wished to be known that she is from China. How amazing, she says. 4:25 I'm trying to approach life from a place of peace. I love the lessons in your podcast. And as a result of your advice, I work on protecting my inner citadel every day. But I would like some guidance on this, some more guidance if possible. Thank you, anonymous questioner from China for sending that into the podcast. 4:46 So let's have a look at our author of the day. Francis or Fanny Burney, 1752 to 1840 was closely associated with A Blue Stocking Circle, the 18th century prominent intellectual group of women and men. 5:09 Now as a successful novelist, Fanny attended their salons and was friends with leading members including Elizabeth Montague. Her success with Evelina meant the doors to the Blue Stocking Group were wide open and her famous Diaries she kept recorded her life within the Blue Stocking Group, including her interactions with Samuel Johnson and other key figures. 5:39 So they gave us a direct insight into what it was like within the Blue stocking circle, albeit at times satirical. And this is what drew me to her, because while she participated in this intellectual society, she also observed and sometimes satirised the group itself. 6:09 In fact, she was the one responsible for famously recounting the anecdotes that gave the blue stockings their name when Benjamin Stillingfleet wore his blue worsted stockings, his cheap worsted stockings, to the club because he couldn't afford more expensive ones. 6:29 I find this very interesting as I myself am someone who aligns with various ideas, who has feet in different camps, yet prefers to be on the outside looking in in order to gain a sense of perspective and be free to make unconventional connections. 6:48 Which I hope is what the Female Stoic podcast is doing. So we can assume by this that Francis Burney was a free spirit, willing to honour her inner peace by retaining her sense of individuality, regardless of which salon or elite group she belonged to. 7:14 And what is the connection here to Stoicism? Well, as we know if we've been following the Female Stoic podcast, Elizabeth Carter, another member of the Blue Stocking Group, was the first person and of course the only woman to translate Epictetis discourses into English in a time when it was not seen at all socially acceptable for a woman to be doing any such thing. 7:43 And if you want to know more about the Blue Stockings, go back to previous episodes where they're featured heavily. So honouring her higher self of Frances Burney and for most of the Blue Stockings meant creativity of some kind. 8:01 Writing, painting, poetry, intellectual endeavour. Let's have a look at Evelina, or the history of a young Lady's entrance into the world. Written by Francis Burney, this was the book that kicked everything off. 8:20 First published in 1778, it offered a detailed look into the social landscape of Britain and France during the 18th century. It was very successful, but the controversy surrounding it was when George Huddersford, a painter, satirical poet in Oxford and Reverend, published his poem Woolly, a satire in two parts in 1778. 8:54 He added the line or gain approbation from Dear little Bernie. This alluded to and publicly unmasked Francis Burney as the authoress of Evelina. Now, as we know, it was socially unacceptable for women of this time to write novels, let alone publish them, and they were published anonymously or with pseudonyms. 9:24 Most of the bluestocking group, the Women in the Blue Stocking group, used pseudonyms, so that was This was outrageous to be outed like this. And even though Bernie's circle of friends knew her to be the author of Evelina, Huddersford's mention of her was a matter which could have had severe repercussions for Frances Burney in society, a woman of the late 18th century. 9:59 And it was for this reason and this is how she is protecting her in a peace. She is taking action when feeling this personal attack to protect her virtue and in a peace by visiting several publishers, constructing fake identities and employing her brother to disguise himself and travel in the dead of night to sign a contract for her when it was less likely he should be recognised. 10:36 Evelina was a massive success. It was praised for its wit and social satire, and then Bernie went on to write extensive journals offering invaluable insights into late 18th century life, including a tumultuous period serving at the court of Queen Charlotte and travelling in France. 11:03 Virginia Woolf described her as the mother of English fiction, and she was acclaimed by Anna Letitia Barbold, fellow Blue Stocking, who was a literary critic, an editor and acclaimed author of children's literature. 11:22 And of course, she was pseudonyms herself until she was married by saying scarcely any name stands higher in the list of novel writers than of Miss Burney. In order to achieve what she did, it was necessary for Francis Burney to maintain Ray's sharp focus on the protection of her inner peace and her end goal without being reliant on the support of others. 11:56 In Elanina, she says, you must learn not only to judge, but to act for yourself. And that is not the end of the story. 12:11 Yes, she wrote. Yes, she journaled. But this is just the beginning where her story becomes fascinating and how it relates to today's question about coming to life from a place of inner peace. 12:30 It was Paris, the autumn of 1811, where Frances Burney faced the last and most extraordinary chapter of everything she would ever write. She had first noticed a pain in her right breast in 1810. 12:52 She was married at this time and her husband suspected the worst. The leading physicians of Paris were consulted, and after months of examinations and attempts to avoid the inevitable, the doctors reached their conclusion. 13:08 Surgery was necessary, a mastectomy, a fall, removal of the breast, but at this time there was no anaesthesia and there would not be for another generation. 13:26 On the morning of September the 30th 1811, Bernie received a letter giving her two hours notice that the surgeons were coming. She had prepared but to her shock they dragged 2 mattresses together into the centre of her salon. 13:43 She was laid down upon them and a thin veil placed over her face. Through the veil she watched as they made their preliminary marks on her skin. A line, a cross, a circle. 14:03 And then she understood. They intended not a partial removal, but a full amputation of the breast. What then followed was nearly 20 minutes of surgery in which Frances Burney was fully conscious she could not be given anything to reduce the pain. 14:30 Her own account, written six months later in a letter to her sister Esther, described it in such visceral detail that medical historians continue to cite it as one of the most important patient narratives in the history of surgery. 14:51 This is incredible control to maintain consciousness throughout, so much so that she could then go on to document in fine detail afterwards exactly what had happened. Step by step seems to exceed the boundaries of what a body can endure. 15:14 And she survived. She lived another 29 years after the mastectomy, writing until nearly the end of her life. She outlived her husband, her son and almost everyone who had known her in the Blue Stocking group, where she had once been, the most talked about anonymous novelist outed outrageously in England. 15:44 What a woman. So to go back to the question, how do we come to life from a place of inner peace? Marcus Aurelius said. The tranquillity that comes when you stop caring what they say or what they do. 16:00 It comes only when you care about what you do. As Stoics, we make a conscious choice every day to act from inner stillness, not external pressure. He says. 16:15 The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength. In order to survive this ordeal, to remain conscious, to remain aware. I argue that Francis Burney had to be thinking from the end, to think from the end. 16:38 To feel from the end, To think from a place of already having is a matter of being. She's surviving the ordeal from a point of it's over. I have come out of this and I will live on strength. 16:59 Stoic strength comes from the state of already having. Inner peace flows from the state of already being at peace. It is up to us to consciously make the inner decision to be at peace. 17:16 We're not chasing, we're not radiating. We are saying no, I am already there now. Certain days I will need to catch up, but it has already afforded me. It is already mine. 17:32 Inner peace is mine to have. I already have it on days when I feel weaker, I'm just catching up to the reality that it is already mine. It may be argued that just as Francis Burney made the conscious decision to protect her anonymity, the conscious decision to remain alert with the knowledge she would go on to document each and every painful act under the knife in order to relate this to the betterment of knowledge of Women's Health. 18:11 She was coming from a place of it is already done. I am already protected, I have come through the other side. I have already achieved success. I have already survived and lived to tell the tale. 18:29 She is coming from a place of assumption. It is already done and this is to address the questioner. How I would suggest we come to a place of inner peace. 18:47 It is already ours and on days we feel attacked and the walls of our inner citadel are crumbling, we understand. We just need to catch up and do a bit more building. 19:06 So as you know, each week we have a journal task and at this point I suggest we take up our journals and write the following. This is, I think affirmation is the wrong word, but this is a reminder, a statement. 19:31 And what I want you to do is write the following three times as this reminder or statement and repeat this reminder or statement each morning when you rise and each night before you go to bed. So what you need to write in your journal is this is what I am now. 19:56 I am at peace. And using the power of three, we say again, this is what I am now I am at peace. And one more time, this is what I am now. 20:18 I am at peace. We are coming to life as stoics from a place of peace and we understand that everything will then reorganise itself to agree with us. 20:35 External forces seek to align. That's what they do. Chaos cannot align with peace. Chaos is vibrating at a different level. When we honour our higher self, we are vibrating at a higher level. 20:57 We are honouring our inner peace and this level is 1, which chaos cannot reach. When you act as though you are at peace, you have a grounded sense of self. You stop narrating each problem. 21:15 It feels unnecessary when you assume things are working in your favour to narrate anything. The key here is to allow your intuition to speak louder than your fear. 21:34 Relax into a state of inner peace and a relaxed body sends a message to the subconscious. I am secure, I am safe, I am stable, life supports me. We must assume everything is serving us. 21:55 We do not doubt the end. Inner peace is ours to have and we must accept it. We must live it, we must breathe it. It was always ours. So in conclusion, when seeking to maintain our inner peace, let us live from a place it is already done, where peace is already ours, and in times of trial, understand it is already ours and we just need to work that day a little bit harder to catch up with it. 22:46 And if you happen to be surrounded by others who are being very successful in their maintenance of that one day, especially on a day where you feel that is far away from you, feel reassured because if it is possible for them, it is certainly possible for you. 23:12 I think Francis Burney taught us that. And just to go on to next week, I will be discussing, I've had a book sent into the podcast and it is entitled Jesus and Stoicism, The Parallel Sayings by Brittany Polat. 23:38 So thank you Brittany for that. And I'm just going to read a tiny little extract to give you a flavour of what we will be talking about next week. Brittany says in this book we will examine extraordinary parallels in the ethical systems developed by Jesus and the Stoics. 23:59 Together, these two ethical systems have influenced Western ideals at a fundamental level for two millennia, inspiring individuals to lead better lives and encouraging justice on a societal scale, she says. 24:17 By studying these two venerable traditions side by side, we can see established truths with new clarity, perhaps even detecting an underlying pattern within Western ethics that points us towards a deeper understanding of ourselves and our lives. 24:39 Thank you so much. Again, I'm going to post the link to the voting for my nomination in the Women Podcasters of the Year awards, and I'm hoping on the podcast notes. 24:58 So you'll have to go to the podcast and I'm hoping that some of you will vote for me. That would be fantastic if you enjoy the podcast. And I shall see you again next week. Bye. 25:18