Stoicism is a philosophical school that appeared in Athens nearly 300 B.C. Stoics taught to show steadiness and courage while passing through life trials, and left lots of written works after them.
Almost all of tips given by stoic philosophers remain actual in our times. What arguments can one use when writing an essay about that? See recommended arguments by myessay.us company.
1. People are Upset not by Events, But by Their Opinion about Events
A human got fired. Will they feel upset and insulted? Of course! No doubts! The world will not be as it used to be before.
Stoics say, there are no bad or good events, there is only a perception. They state that the outer world is objective and indifferent. Humans should say “This happened to me”, and not “This happened to me and this is bad”. The difference between these phrases is huge.
This part of stoicism philosophy was even adapted by psychologists to provide a cognitive behavioral therapy. It helps people to overcome troubles, from anxiety and anger to heavy depressions.
All that is needed to do is, for example, imagine that after one got fired, they found a job of their dream, achieved their goals, realized their potential and they give an interview about their life. Won’t they say that an event that seemed to be an end was needed, because it helped them to start something new?
Any trouble can be and should be seen from a positive point of view. This does not mean people have to be happy and absolutely satisfied with smaller achievements, they need to work more.
Stoics claimed that the most of unpleasant feelings people experience are caused by their irrational beliefs. Everyone should analyze their negative emotions instead of concentrating on them, and to ask: what are their beliefs about the event that caused those feelings.
2. Control What You Can and Ignore Everything Else
The main idea of stoicism was covered in a question: “Can I do something about that?”. If you can, then do that. If you don’t, then stop worrying about that.
In modern world, there are many examples illustrating this idea. For instance, someone planned to go out of the city, but there happened a heavy rain on that day. There are two possible ways to solve the situation:
- Doing all that is possible to go out of the city and make the influence of rain minimal;
- Finding another entertainment.
No tears and nerves can have any sense in cases like that.
3. Accept Everything but Do Not Remain Passive
This idea is that, what causes troubles for many modern people. They do not like the word “accept”, they think it is something like the words “give up”. Stoics look from the other side: what is an antonym to the word “Accept”? “Deny.” There are no many people who think denying is good.
Modern stoics also say, people can be much happier if they exclude the words “have to” from their active vocabulary. “Have to” is a denial. People say that when the reality does not meet their expectations:
- My children do not have to behave like that! (breaking news: they behave badly);
- The jam does not have to be that terrible! (No, but it actually is like that);
- The rain has not to be! (but the rain is);
A denial is irrational, and irrational beliefs are what causes negative emotions to appear.
So, the first step is to accept reality. But this does not mean you have to be passive.
You accept rain as a part of reality. It is here. Denials and “have to” can’t change anything. But this does not mean you can’t take an umbrella with you (perform action).
Acceptation means humility, but not only it. Stoics treated facts as they were, and then made decisions about what to do with them. Yes, there is a heavy rain outside, so the walk is not an option. Let’s watch a cool movie!
4. Decision about Being One’s Child
People are not alone, they have someone to learn from. For instance, Seneca said that everyone likes to tell that they can’t choose their parents, that parents were randomly given to them. But everyone can choose whose child they want to be.
One can find their own way to reach success and happiness, but this search takes much time. It is cleverer to find a mentor. This helps people to realize what they can at their full power, stoics say.
5. Morning and Evening Rituals
Stoics concentrated on morning and evening rituals much. Morning ritual helped them to prepare for an upcoming day, evening one was for thinking how the day passed and what can be improved.
Marcus Aurelius wrote: “Today, people I will meet, are going to be…” and wrote down the list of all the negative personality features one could ever imagine. This prepared him to perceive someone’s silliness, being naive and aggressive calmly.
According to stoicism, morning and nigh before sleep are two main periods of the day. Human’s life depends on their quality.