Stoicism for a Better Life – Weekly exercise (September 5)

Hello there,

For this week, let us get back to some very core Stoic precepts with words from Epictetus’ Discourses II 1-12:

“So if you don’t want to be cantankerous, don’t feed your temper, or multiply incidents of anger. Suppress the first impulse to be angry, then begin to count the days on which you don’t get mad.”

I dare anyone to claim they do not get angry over things they KNOW they should not get upset over. I suffer from this daily and I have been working on this for a decade. If we are being honest with ourselves, there is no way…no scenario in which we will never feel anger. However, we can distance ourselves from it and become numb to its very bad advice.

When an event occurs, we have an emotional response… a knee jerk reaction. This is no more controllable than getting seasick when one goes out to the open seas for the first time. This initial reaction is automated responses of the vessel we occupy (also known as the body) and are referred to as Proto-emotions by our ancient guides.

So this week, when something happens (e.x. someone cuts you off dangerously in traffic) and you have a knee jerk response (e.x. flare up and get super angry) take a deep breath and recognize the Proto-emotion for what it is. Choose to engage your rational mind before you respond because you can…because you have the choice. 

Life is too short to lose in emotions and responses triggered by them. So let us try and reduce the loss as much as possible by making a conscious effort (no matter how little we may accomplish).

Anderson Silver (Stoicism for a Better Life)