Stoicism
Early on in my service in Corrections I thought I had adopted a Stoic 'Stiff Upper Lip Attitude' philosophy. I would take those stressors, pay them no mind and push them aside. However, to be precise, I thought I was pushing those stressors aside, what I was actually doing was tossing those pieces of trash into a mental closet. Eventually the trash had overrun the closet, filled my metaphorical house and threatened to bring down the structure.
Two years ago, after I started my recovery journey, I discovered what real stoicism was. It is an ancient philosophy that was born in Greece. It teaches how to focus on what we have the power to control, our thoughts, feelings and desires. Thoughts; quite often my thoughts would overwhelm me and rouse anxiety and anger. What I learned from stoicism was to take a step back from my thoughts and analyze them. I would take the thought and weigh it against the known facts to see if the thought was appropriate to the situation. When I learned to view and analyze my thoughts calmly they slowly lost control of me. I came to view my past practice of ignoring my thoughts, particularly the negative ones, as self-destructive. Feelings; as the persistent thoughts and stressors took their toll the feelings of anger and depression became normal and I began making decisions from that frame of mind, however. I was not aware that I had become different. Because of my false Stoic practice of ignoring my feelings and tossing them into my metaphorical closet with the rest of trash, those feelings began smelling up my house and the odour began seeping into the walls. Through my study of stoicism I discovered that, as mentioned above, stepping back from an emotion, analyzing it and the situation, determining its appropriateness and deciding which emotions to engage with and which to let go has helped me to gain greater control of my reactions to emotion. Desire; I don't just mean what we like, but also what we dislike. It is natural to be attracted to what we like and repulsed from what we dislike, but we do both actions out of desire, and that desire should be analyzed like thoughts and emotions. This way we can decide if that cigarette we desire is appropriate. On the other side of the coin we can analyze our fears, an example would be being afraid of heights when standing at the edge of a cliff. It would be reasonable to fear falling over a cliff when standing in front of one. However, does the fear continue to be reasonable when standing between you and the cliff edge is a guard rail, or perhaps a pane of glass. Does it continue to seem reasonable to shy away from the beautiful landscape if you would have to go out of your way to fall over the edge? By analyzing my thoughts, feelings and desires, I began to identify and analyze my behaviour, which led to me making positive changes.
Another aspect of stoicism which appeals to me is the belief that one should live a virtuous life. The four cardinal virtues are taught, prudence, fortitude, temperance and justice. Prudence; to be cautious, make decisions cautiously. The above mentioned practice of identifying and analyzing aspects of our nature in order to make better choices is a fine definition of prudence. Fortitude; i.e. courage, bravery, and strength. As I am sure you can imagine it would take a great deal of fortitude to, not only, face down and figure ourselves out, but also to take what we learn, correct and change behaviour which has become comfortable and engrained. Temperance; not to do things to excess or overindulge. By regulating our desires we learn temperance. Through temperance we learn that a life of balance is a happy and healthy life. Justice; fairness, justness. Stoics believe in cultivating a good character and being leveled headed and fair are considered to be marks of a good character.
As mentioned above stoicism seeks to help people build a good character and to help us enjoy our lives in peace. Disclaimer; the practice of stoicism can lead to dealing with some heavy subjects that some can find upsetting, however; the point of the practice is to analyze ourselves and why we are upset by what upsets us. The only advice I can give is to take the practice slow and don't dive into anything that might cause you too much upset at first.
Two years ago, after I started my recovery journey, I discovered what real stoicism was. It is an ancient philosophy that was born in Greece. It teaches how to focus on what we have the power to control, our thoughts, feelings and desires. Thoughts; quite often my thoughts would overwhelm me and rouse anxiety and anger. What I learned from stoicism was to take a step back from my thoughts and analyze them. I would take the thought and weigh it against the known facts to see if the thought was appropriate to the situation. When I learned to view and analyze my thoughts calmly they slowly lost control of me. I came to view my past practice of ignoring my thoughts, particularly the negative ones, as self-destructive. Feelings; as the persistent thoughts and stressors took their toll the feelings of anger and depression became normal and I began making decisions from that frame of mind, however. I was not aware that I had become different. Because of my false Stoic practice of ignoring my feelings and tossing them into my metaphorical closet with the rest of trash, those feelings began smelling up my house and the odour began seeping into the walls. Through my study of stoicism I discovered that, as mentioned above, stepping back from an emotion, analyzing it and the situation, determining its appropriateness and deciding which emotions to engage with and which to let go has helped me to gain greater control of my reactions to emotion. Desire; I don't just mean what we like, but also what we dislike. It is natural to be attracted to what we like and repulsed from what we dislike, but we do both actions out of desire, and that desire should be analyzed like thoughts and emotions. This way we can decide if that cigarette we desire is appropriate. On the other side of the coin we can analyze our fears, an example would be being afraid of heights when standing at the edge of a cliff. It would be reasonable to fear falling over a cliff when standing in front of one. However, does the fear continue to be reasonable when standing between you and the cliff edge is a guard rail, or perhaps a pane of glass. Does it continue to seem reasonable to shy away from the beautiful landscape if you would have to go out of your way to fall over the edge? By analyzing my thoughts, feelings and desires, I began to identify and analyze my behaviour, which led to me making positive changes.
Another aspect of stoicism which appeals to me is the belief that one should live a virtuous life. The four cardinal virtues are taught, prudence, fortitude, temperance and justice. Prudence; to be cautious, make decisions cautiously. The above mentioned practice of identifying and analyzing aspects of our nature in order to make better choices is a fine definition of prudence. Fortitude; i.e. courage, bravery, and strength. As I am sure you can imagine it would take a great deal of fortitude to, not only, face down and figure ourselves out, but also to take what we learn, correct and change behaviour which has become comfortable and engrained. Temperance; not to do things to excess or overindulge. By regulating our desires we learn temperance. Through temperance we learn that a life of balance is a happy and healthy life. Justice; fairness, justness. Stoics believe in cultivating a good character and being leveled headed and fair are considered to be marks of a good character.
As mentioned above stoicism seeks to help people build a good character and to help us enjoy our lives in peace. Disclaimer; the practice of stoicism can lead to dealing with some heavy subjects that some can find upsetting, however; the point of the practice is to analyze ourselves and why we are upset by what upsets us. The only advice I can give is to take the practice slow and don't dive into anything that might cause you too much upset at first.
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