Stoicism for a Better Life – Weekly exercise (July 26, 2020)
Hello there,
I tend to go through phases of philosophers depending on what I’m reading or am focused on at a particular time. I realized that as much as I have used Seneca’s work for these exercises in the past (and he has a lot of great work as we all know) in recent times I have neglected our favourite statesman philosopher. Here’s an excerpt from Seneca’s Moral Letters to Lucilius:
“Here’s a lesson to test your mind’s mettle: take part of a week in which you have only the most meager and cheap food, dress scantly in shabby clothes, and ask yourself it this is really the worst that you feared. It is when times are good that you should gird yourself for tougher times ahead, for when Fortune is kind the soul can build defenses against her ravages. So it is that soldiers practice maneuvers in peace time, erecting bunkers with no enemies in sight and exhausting themselves under no attack so that when it comes they won’t grow tired.”
OK, so Stoicism has gotten a lot of bad marketing in recent years, mainly due to this type of quotes. The philosophy has been branded as a tough guy macho way of life, and has even been associated with a lot of toxic masculinity. I often speak out against these misconceptions and try and educate newcomers to the simple precepts of Stoicism that are diametrically opposed to this line of thought. Stoics do have and feel emotions. Stoics do mourn. Stoics do feel pain and empathise and are not loners or passivists.
However, Stoics do try and toughen themselves physically, as much as they do mentally. This is a lesson that comes from the Stoics’ older cousins, the Cynics. The most famous Cynic, Diogenes, was known to practice physical toughening to its extremes. Zeno, the founder of the school of Stoicism, received his initial training in philosophy by Cretes, who was a Cynic and a student of Diogenes, and Zeno adopted many (and I mean many) of the Cynics approaches and precepts, including physical toughening (not strengthening, toughening).
The key here, however, is how one should try and become tougher physically, and most importantly WHY one should do it. No…taking cold showers does not make you a Stoic, nor does it make you more virtuous. However, practicing self control (strengthening of the mental faculties – i.e. the Prohairesis) by accepting the cold shower in equanimity does in fact make you a more virtuous person.
We are rational minds. We have a consciousness (the real us) that lives in this vessel…this mainly hairless bipedal ape body. And this body feels pain and reacts to pain through physical (e.g. a twitch) and mental (e.g. emotions) responses. These, we cannot control. This initial reaction is what the Stoics refer to as Proto-emotions. When you step into a cold shower, your body will feel the cold and shiver or jerk…guaranteed. This cannot be controller. We can, however, control our thoughts and responses after this initial shock. And the more we practice taking control of our thought after the body manifests its primitive responses, the easier it gets and the quicker we can do it, regardless of the intensity of the physical response we have.
So, as a practical exercise this week, find some way in which you can get your body to respond physically and/or emotionally to an external stimulus, and then try and overtake the body’s instinctive response with your rational mind’s intelligent and logical response.
I would love to hear some of your examples and accomplishments. Let me know how you did by reaching out to me on Twitter or Reddit to keep the conversation going.
As always I wish you a tranquil and productive week.
Anderson Silver
(Author of “Your User’s Manual” and “Vol 2: Your Duality Within”)