I first heard of Marcus Aurelius more than five years ago when I was reading a book called "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience", by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced as Me-High Chick-Sent-Me-High)—itself a book I highly recommend; he spent his entire career devoted to this topic. That made me wanted explore Stoicism to better understand what they said about human well-being and what the Greeks called "Eudaimonia" (flourishing). Although, I only began the deep-dive some two years ago.
How has it changed me? In many positive and enabling ways. It's an ongoing process, but it certainly made me more resilient, tranquil; ability to give better structure to my attention when in solitude; better ways to deal with setbacks; and to learn to "make correct use of mental impressions" (Epictetus' favorite way of describing the Stoic project), among others.
Interesting. I also came across Meditations from M.A. when reading Flow by M.C. I downloaded a license-free ebook of Meditations, but found the translation to be excessively complicated and ended up abandoning it. I really appreciate your recommendations now, and will fore sure give them a try again.
Glad to be useful. A poor translation is definitely a deal-breaker. It is absolutely worth investing in good English translations (taking time to do some research helps). Most of the good translations have a robust introduction that situates the topic in context with helpful notes, references, and bibliography.
Good luck!
PS: I maintain that good old physical copies are superior to e-books for these kinds of studies. Especially when you need to frequently refer to the notes—it makes flipping back-n-forth far more pleasant. Also spatial aspect of a paper-based book, better retention, and other well-known benefits.
How has it changed me? In many positive and enabling ways. It's an ongoing process, but it certainly made me more resilient, tranquil; ability to give better structure to my attention when in solitude; better ways to deal with setbacks; and to learn to "make correct use of mental impressions" (Epictetus' favorite way of describing the Stoic project), among others.