Stoicism for anxiety
Stoicism is a philosophy from ancient Rome and had many affluent followers including Marcus Aurelius who was a great roman leader and has written the most famous stoic book called the Meditations. I personally enjoyed the letters of Seneca who also was a stoic philosopher and usually read a chapter or two in the mornings with tea. I depict Seneca as an old wise man, the kind you meet in parks that tell you how to chill out. Reading stoic writing chills me out and gives me a feeling of ease a lot like meditation but through reading. It urges us to divide the world into what is and what is not in our control. This is really helpful advice as it clearly defines what you need to and need not care about, freeing up the mind from useless clutter. This straightens me out in the morning and gives me a feeling of control for the day.
Letting what does not matter, truly slide”
Understanding what does and does not matter is essential for us to follow the principles of stoicism. Stoic thinking requires us to firstly reason our actions in life and take control and it requires us secondly to be calm as it is not possible to reason and make smart decisions if you are not calm. According to stoics men can only be calm if they know what is in their control and focus on that only. It is not possible to share the pain of the world and stay sane at the same time. It is your pain that you have to deal with. Deal with that well and the rest will be fine. It is essential to realize that we are in a state of information excess, that probably not knowing the problems of everyone in your office space will do you good. To focus only on what you have in control is a call to improve the parts of your life that you can.
Stoic philosophy urges us to see the world around us and apply these principles and see that it makes us more free of unnecessary constraints by helping us recognize them.
I remember reading a letter from Seneca’s books explaining what the difference between supposed freedom and true freedom is. He points out that most people act a certain way in front of people, not because of courteousness, most of the times it is fear of exclusion that makes them courteous. It is an unnecessary constraint and may make you do things that you do not wish to, that you might later regret. This is a learned tendency and you do not want to strengthen anything that is fear-based.
One drill that was suggested to detach yourself from social pressure was to wear something out of the norm and go out. Of course, people look at you and you notice the occasional smirk but the thing that we learn from this exercise is that we can survive it. What Seneca was trying to make us realize was that the worst things that we can imagine happening to us like social exclusion or mockery, is not really the toughest thing and may even give you personal joy if you choose it willingly. It breaks our assumptions that certain things are bad as they might be difficult but in reality, these things don’t matter and are rather easy. Breaking our old preconceptions and making us realize that we are braver and tougher than we think.
I have gained a lot of value from reading stoicism and have used it as a source to help me with anxiety. I was able to improve significantly by actually never going to a psychologist by applying the principles of stoicism in daily life and i hope reading stoicism could help anyone of you do the same.
