Living through a pandemic – now into its second year – has called upon reserves of patience, fortitude and flexibility like never before. Alternating between complete compliance with new health regulations and raging against the loss of everything we love – from time with the family to a night out at the opera – we are left, at times, wondering if we will ever find the equanimity of mind to endure these times. Searching for some sage advice, we suspect, given the name, that we will find it with the ancient Stoics. I’ll let you be the judge, after reading this, if our hunch was right.
Stoicism is a life philosophy that was founded by Zeno of Citium in ancient Greece. While Zeno addressed the usual areas of philosophical inquiry – logic, physics, and ethics – it was his view on ethics, or how we should conduct ourselves, that became the cornerstone of Stoic thought. Central to his beliefs was that the highest purpose of life – goodness – was achieved by the cultivation of virtue, or, if you like, the “best version of ourselves.” The best version of ourselves to a Stoic would be someone who is selfless, courageous, self-disciplined, tolerant, honest, patient, just, prudent, and aware of how their actions affect others and the natural order of the universe.
A later philosopher (and former slave), Epictetus, expands Zeno’s ideas in his book How to Be Free, demonstrating how the cultivation of virtue leads to a mind freed from the “dramatics” of daily living. By focusing on the development of our better selves, and what’s up to us (our motivations, desires, judgments, reactions) and accommodating those that are not (other people, natural events, our wealth, health, reputation), we are on the path to achieving that peace of mind that is impervious to misfortune and the thoughts and actions of others.
Stoicism’s most famous exponent – Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius – likewise found strength in beliefs that stressed one’s ability to prevail, no matter what happens. When not on the battlefield or dealing with the consequences of the Antonine Plague (which caused the death of five million people in the Roman Empire), Aurelius was able to lay out in his book Meditations the clear guide Stoicism gives us about what lies within our responsibility, and what doesn’t.
Characteristic of Aurelius’s stoic stance was to not only accept what one cannot change but treat it as an opportunity to grow: “Welcome wholeheartedly what comes and trust that all is for the best.” That unblinking mental distance, he cautioned, would require “a strength not to be overwhelmed by anything that happens,” to be “the rock that the waves keep crashing over.”
As if customized for people in tough places, Epictetus’s How to Be Free and Aurelius’s Meditations became playbooks for the warriors, saints, and martyrs that succeeded them. Nelson Mandela, while incarcerated for 27 years for his opposition to the apartheid regime in South Africa, took inspiration from the Stoics and managed to overcome potentially soul-destroying situations. He not only accepted but capitalized on what he could do in captivity (studying for a law degree and writing his own meditations; the books A Long Walk to Freedom and Conversations with Myself). Like Epictetus, he refused to allow his mind to be imprisoned and rose above debilitating bitterness and rancour to construct a positive way forward for himself and his country.
It’s not just world leaders that have noticed Stoicism’s powerful ability to transform our thinking. Psychologists in the 1950s, recognizing the difficulty people had in accepting circumstances beyond their control, developed a therapeutic approach that became known as cognitive behavioural therapy. Pivoting from a central tenet of Epictetus – “people are disturbed not by the things which happen, but by their opinions about things” – cognitive behavioural therapy gives patients the emotional management strategies to mitigate the type of self-induced stress that arises when one can’t control an essentially uncontrollable situation.
Patients are encouraged to shift their belief from “everything must go their way” – i.e., that they must be successful, others must treat them well, and conditions in which they live must be agreeable – to “it would be preferable if things went their way,” just as the Stoics encouraged the practice of indifference to those things one cannot fully control.
There is no law of nature that states all must go according to our wishes, hence to cling to obsessive drives and desires is simply unproductive and doomed to disappoint. Rather, concentrating on developing the resources that can serve you at any time and under any circumstance, such as one’s rationality and resiliency, is a far more fruitful avenue to explore.
With this knowledge and these tools in our pocket, we can deduce what a Stoic would do in our current world-rearranging situation. At the outset, they would have realized that, as a natural phenomenon, we have no power to change a pandemic. We may be able to manage it and treat it, but the chances of science eradicating viruses anytime soon would be, to a Stoic’s reasoning, pretty slim. Hence, a Stoic would be prepared to hunker down for the long haul, as, according to most experts on the subject, viruses of this scale tend to hang around much longer than we’d like.
And to guard against going completely bonkers in their “bubbles,” Stoics would consider all those things that can safely be done within the “new order” of social distancing. Perhaps it was time to get the bike tuned, the garden seeded, the baby quilt knitted, or those online Spanish lessons renewed?
A Stoic would also realize that “taking the high road” would mean responding to a crisis with a consciousness of others and would attempt to carve a path through our new landscape that not only honours their better selves, but benefits others, and, ultimately, reaps the joy of flourishing together. Perhaps that would mean helping to set up a communication system that allows care home residents easy online accessibility to family and friends, or perhaps contributing to the fundraising efforts of their local church, or assisting in regional bird counts?
I’m sure a Stoic would come up with an infinite number of ways that we can continue to thrive in what is, undoubtedly, the “new normal” for a while. Indeed, given the chance, we could all, like Nelson Mandela, eventually emerge from our extended lockdown stronger than ever!
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