Stoic Week #5

Note: This is posted in observance of Stoic Week 2023. I observed Stoic Week in 2015. Stoicism helped me through a health ordeal in January 2020. Stoically fine-tuning my habits and attitudes in January and February really prepared me for when the pandemic hit the fan in March. I had to manage the stress of learning to teach on Zoom. When the term ended I had to deal with the social and emotional fallout of the pandemic killing the program I used to teach in. Stoicism helped me deal with the loss of my profession, something I was really good at. It is within my power, my domain, to get benefit from every experience, good and bad.

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How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius - Donald J. Robertson

I’m not a born Stoic, so I need to work to keep its guidance in the front of my mind. This work involves about 10 to 15 minutes of journaling every morning, applying Stoical cognitive distancing during the workday and in social life, and reading longer articles and texts about Stoicism maybe once a season.

Texts like this one. The author of this book does not aim to give information about how Stoicism was developed by its ancient founders. Instead, he talks about how we can instrumentalize Stoicism as a practical orientation in our daily life, as Aurelius did in his job as Emperor of Rome. The most oft-repeated quote in the book, as I hinted above, is “It is not events that upset us, but our judgements about those events.”

Robertson provides many suggestions for cognitive distancing that enable us to calm the frick down and think rationally to respond to events with moderation, wisdom, and bravery.

·         Live in the present. Aurelius taught us “not to be overwhelmed by what you imagine, but just do what you can and should.”

·         To break the cycle of worry and rumination take a time-out. Scarlett O’Hara rather overdid it but she was basically right by shaking her head and shrugging her shoulders with “I’ll think it about tomorrow.”

·         Talk to the thought. “Hey, thought, you just a haint, a hobgoblin, a feeling.” This is not running away from it but viewing it from a meta-cognitive perspective. I mean, lots of thoughts and feelings pop up and we just let them go – why not do the same for a worry about car repairs, tree damage, knuckle-walking neighbors, faithless friends, senility in the family history, winter and on and on about things that are out of our control anyway?

·         To prevent being carried off into worry or daydreaming, rub silk or moleskin or a stone. Notice other sensations, our facial expression, our sitting position, the weather.

·         Picture in your mind that you have put literal space between yourself and the daydream or temptation. How will I feel about this challenge, this hassle in a week or six months?

·         Dispute vehemently what ideas are making you feel upset. How logical or reasonable are these ideas? How likely is a bad outcome? How severe would a bad outcome be? Be vigorous in your arguments with yourself.

After reading this book, I find the orientation of Stoicism thorough and specific. Having goals, however modest, and values, however plain, will help. Slogans like Que Sera Sera or 仕方がない Shikata Ga Nai have their place too. Wabisabi 侘寂, baybee.

I think this book is a good guide to take more control of our emotions in a pressure-cooker age where the culture, the media, strangers and even friends and family on occasion seem to be going out of their way to make feel us nervous and sad. For young people with a propensity to be hot-headed or older people who feel they need to deal better with the jitters or the blues, this self-help book is as useful and well-written as we would wish, a modern-day addition to the originals. 

In a podcast, Robertson said it's easy to return to Seneca’s Letters, Epictetus’ Discourses and Aurelius’ Meditations because they are so well-written, while it is not as easy and enjoyable to re-read modern texts by, say, Albert Ellis. I agree the prose is pretty utilitarian in How to Stubbornly Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable about Anything - Yes, Anything  but I do re-read Ellis' books to remind myself and I could see myself re-reading this book too.