I don't know much about the whole mindfulness thing, but the fundamental insight of stoicism (as explained by Aurelius, anyway) seems to me to be that the majority of negative emotions and unhappiness the typical person feels or experiences are self-inflicted, which means one may learn, through knowledge that these are under one's control and practice avoiding them, not to feel them.
I can't speak for everyone, but this was a major breakthrough in my development as a person. Once you think of it in those terms and treat negativity as a considered choice, you may find it astonishing how many little ill thoughts and such clutter one's day, in addition to larger, obvious things like brooding uselessly over a situation or event that one does not like but cannot, at the time of the brooding, meaningfully change.
YMMV. Maybe that's obvious to some people from the beginning, or maybe some people naturally come to understand that as they grow older. I know that I feel fortunate to have encountered Stoicism, by way of a high school English teacher who taught Salinger's Franny and Zooey, when I did.
I can't speak for everyone, but this was a major breakthrough in my development as a person. Once you think of it in those terms and treat negativity as a considered choice, you may find it astonishing how many little ill thoughts and such clutter one's day, in addition to larger, obvious things like brooding uselessly over a situation or event that one does not like but cannot, at the time of the brooding, meaningfully change.
YMMV. Maybe that's obvious to some people from the beginning, or maybe some people naturally come to understand that as they grow older. I know that I feel fortunate to have encountered Stoicism, by way of a high school English teacher who taught Salinger's Franny and Zooey, when I did.