How does one become a Stoic?
How does one become a Stoic?
Suppose the world is invaded by a pandemic. Everyone has to stay indoors. There is a lot of fear, a lot of uncertainty. How long will this last? Will we all get sick? Anxiously we follow the measures and stay inside for weeks, months.It could be such a test case for a Stoic, but it really happened to us recently. So what can we learn from the Stoics in this situation? And how do you become a Stoic? Thijs Sins explained that the other day in one of his webinars.He outlined three cases. The first is a person concerned about corona. The second is a person with speech anxiety. The third is a person who lies awake at night because of stress at work. And the great thing is: for all of these persons, the Stoics have a remedy!
Being a Stoic
But what exactly is Stoicism? In a nutshell, Stoicism is a philosophical movement that emphasizes the things we do have control over in our lives. And those, according to the Stoics, are our thoughts. What we can't have control over? Everything out there. So in the case of the corona fear, that means that a Stoic is saying: we have no control over this virus. We only have influence over how we react to it. So focus on your mind, get to work on that fear itself, instead of letting it drag you down.Because that's how it is according to the Stoics: happiness arises when we manage to stop getting emotionally carried away by what's going on around us, the things we have no control over. So it is for the person who suffers from a fear of speaking. According to a Stoic, the focus should be on that fear itself. After all, we have no influence on the audience, no influence on what they think of us. So fear of that is meaningless. Focus on the matter you want to speak about, that is where your energy should go.
Lying awake at work
Night owl because of stress at work? Also pointless, argues the Stoic. It all has to do with wanting to exert control over things that cannot be controlled. To be successful at work, you are likely to depend on others. Things that are in the future might indeed go wrong. But do you have control over them? No!
Be happy
Be happy, according to the Stoics, means "be free. Happiness, therefore, according to them, comes from virtue and not from pleasure. To act virtuously is to act ethically. To do those things that are good in themselves. Happiness will automatically follow from that. Pleasure is temporary. Not structural. Not sustainable.
Success, wealth and fame: it is not important to the Stoic.
So that's a great task for this corona period. Don't fight the measures or the fear, but see if you can be happy with less. Can you be happy without going to all kinds of parties and doing all kinds of fun things? Can you become happy spending time at home with your family or household?
This is your ultimate chance to find out!
My solution
And remember, it's about adjusting your thinking: not corona but the thoughts about corona make unhappy. And your thoughts, those are things that are within your control. The solution I use here is to address these thoughts with targeted exercises and conversations.