There is, at times, the perception that those things that come from our past are worn, tiresome, and irrelevant to our modern world. The inherited wisdom of the past is all too happily discarded for convenient bromides and cliches, which are disseminated and have come to populate our world. This perception has found fertile soil in our commercialist society in particular, where the newest thing, the most recent trend, or perhaps the most up-to-date fashion draw more attention than the idea of an eternal truth.
In more recent years, psychologists have sought to return to the past, and dip into the ancient storerooms of wisdom that have been able to guide mankind for centuries. In particular, in the latter half of the 20th century the psychologists Albert Ellis and Donald Robertson sought to explore the ancient Greek principles of Stoicism and apply it to the art of psychotherapy.
To the unfamiliar, Stoicism is an ancient Greek philosophy which focuses on virtue, wisdom, and self-control. Its intention is not to play with abstract ideas, but to offer practical and profound insights for navigating the common challenges that we might encounter in our everyday lives. To be brief, here is how Stoicism can be applied today:
1. Control and Acceptance: Stoicism teaches that, as much as we would like to, we cannot control external events. We can only control our reactions to them. In modern life, this means accepting that we cannot control so much of what happens around us, like the actions of others, the economy, politics, the weather, et cetera. Our efforts are better reserved to focusing on both what we can control and how we can respond to things. This perspective helps reduce stress and frustration by recognizing our own reasonable limitations.
2. Emotional Regulation: Stoicism emphasizes the importance of managing emotions, particularly negative ones like anger, fear, or jealousy. It encourages us to recognize when emotions can be helpful in guiding our motivations and giving us foresight into a decision, as well as when they are unhelpful, when we must keep our emotional reasoning in check.
3. Amor fati (Love of fate): This is the idea of embracing everything that happens to us, good or bad, as part of our own personal journey. The Stoics taught that instead of resisting the ups and downs of our own life, that we should accept them and recognize that every experience serves a purpose, even if not immediately seen or understood.
4. Living out Daily Virtue: The Stoics taught that happiness was the natural result of the free practice of virtue- temperance, fortitude, prudence, and justice. That doing well means doing good. In our modern lives, this could mean prioritizing our integrity, our authenticity, and our own self-respect over the superficialities that can easily distract us.
5. Self-Discipline and Self-Control: Stoicism practices self-discipline by focusing on finding peace of mind and avoiding unnecessary distractions. It teaches that the more cognizant we are of our actions and decisions the more control that we will have over them. All of this is done in the effort to master desires and avoid thoughtless or careless behaviors.
