Stoicism for a Better Life – Weekly exercise (January 12, 2020)
Hello there,
Last week I ended with a good night’s sleep being an added bonus to living your days while consciously focusing on the truly important things in your life. This week on Stoicism for a Better Life, I want to continue on the topic of a good night’s sleep. Let us get some inspiration from the Moral Letters of Seneca to Lucillius LVI 6:
“…no real rest can be found when reason has not done the lulling. Night brings our troubles to the light, rather than banishes them; it merely changes the form of our worries. For even when we seek slumber, our sleepless moments are as harassing as the daytime. Real tranquillity is the state reached by an unperverted mind when it is relaxed.”
At night, when we close our eyes to sleep or are in the act of sleeping, almost all we hear is our thoughts (unless you have a baby monitor nearby that you’re keeping an ear out for, or there’s an alley cat in heat that’s singing for you while you try and fall asleep). In the above quote what Seneca is basically saying is that we rest well only if our conscious is clear, since an unclear conscious is noisy. So how can we have a clear conscience, or as Seneca puts it, “an unperverted mind”? Do everything perfectly, don’t pay any attention to your emotions, live virtuously in every moment from the time you wake up until the moment you close your eyes. I’m sure if one could actually live such a day, they would, in fact, sleep well. But I also know the above conditions describe a sage (as in someone who is capable of being perfect and virtuous in every moment throughout the day, no matter the external circumstance). But being a sage (or philosopher-king as I call it) is an unattainable status.
We’re human beings. We have feelings, and we make mistakes. This is inevitable. Therefore an unperverted mind is not one which has done no mistakes. Instead, it is one that has done it’s best within the confines of the circumstance life has thrown it’s way. It is a mind that is focused on choices regarding things within its sphere of control (as much as possible). and a mind that truly and honestly does it’s best. Like I always say, virtue is not found in perfection. Virtue is found in effort.
Intuitions and emotional responses are a big part of being human, and they’re not always bad. But sometimes, we do react in ways our rational mind would have preferred not to. Does this mean we should feel bad and have a perverted mind? No. We didn’t make that choice consciously. Moreover, that decision is already in the past. But what about that feeling of guilt? What do we do with that feeling of “I wish I hadn’t done that”? This is what this week’s exercise is all about.
We may not be able to control our emotional responses, but we can still use our rational mind to reflect on them and learn from them. If you do this before bed, then you can clear your conscious and have a good night’s sleep, knowing you did your best. So, for this week’s exercise, reserve yourself some time to write in your journal (or any piece of paper) before you go to bed at night. Write out what you think you did bad, and how you can do it better next time. The goal is not to dwell on the bad. That’s already in the past. But you can use your rational mind in the present to try and learn from this bad response, so that next time you are confronted with the same situation, you have a better chance of reacting in a virtuous manner. And then finish your journal entry with what you think you did good. So in this way, your last thoughts before closing your eyes are to consciously clear your mind (so as to render it unperverted) and reconfirm to yourself that you did your best today. This is how you will sleep better.
As always, I wish you a wise, tranquil and productive week. Share some of your stories if you can.
Anderson Silver
(Author of “Your User’s Manual” and “Vol 2: Your Duality Within”)