Stoicism for a Better Life – Weekly exercise (April 17, 2019)

Hello there,

This week for our guidance, let us look at Seneca – XLVIII 4:

“Both ambition and anger will wish to have the same rights over me as pleasure, and I shall be torn asunder, or rather pulled to pieces, amid all these conflicting passions.”

The Stoic philosophy never teaches to suppress and avoid emotions. This is something I appreciate about the philosophy, in that it accepts us just the way we are: and what we are is human beings with emotions. To feel emotions is to be human after all. However, Stoicism does give us guidance on how to “better” feel emotions as we go through life. Our ancient guides tell us to work on (as often as possible,…no matter how little success we have) shifting our emotional spectrum from Pathea to Eupatheia.

Pathea (negative emotions such as anger, hatred and fear) bring disharmony to our inner discourse, whereas Eupatheia (healthy positive emotions like love, joy and a sense of justice) have no conflict amongst them, so one can cultivate those emotions and inherently find inner harmony. You only have enough computing power within your brain to feel one of these.

So this week catch yourself when you feel Pathea, and make a conscious effort to change it to Eupatheia. If your animal/primitive vessel’s brain wants to feel negative emotions…fine. But don’t let the conversation end there. Use your faculty of reason (that which the logos gave you) to have a counterpoint in your inner discourse and think and feel Eupatheia. No matter what you feel negatively about, there is ALWAYS a positive spin that can be found if we look for it. Remember the shortness of life; remember we are all the same fleshy bits we call human beings with death-sentences; remember that humanity is in a state of evil against its own will, and that people don’t do “bad” because they are “bad” people; etc.

Good luck to all this week, and as usual, share your stories if you feel like it (many get inspiration from just reading about others’ journeys).

Much love

 Anderson Silver

(Author of “Your User’s Manual” and “Vol 2: Your Duality Within”)