PASSIONS AND EMOTIONS

“Keep constant guard over your perceptions, for it is no small thing you are protecting, but your respect, trustworthiness and steadiness, peace of mind, freedom from pain and fear, in a word your freedom. For what would you sell these things?” – Epictetus, Discourses, 4.3.6b–8

THE dysfunctional job that stresses you out, a contentious relationship, life in the spotlight. Stoicism, because it helps us manage and think through our emotional reactions, can make these kinds of situations easier to bear. It can help you manage and mitigate the triggers that seem to be so constantly tripped.

But here’s a question: Why are you subjecting yourself to this? Is this really the environment you were made for? To be provoked by nasty emails, internet trolls who have no sense of common decency, or an endless parade of issues brought on by other people? Our adrenal glands can handle only so much before they become exhausted. Shouldn’t you preserve them for real-life practical situations that should be demanding your full attention?

So yes, use Stoicism to manage whatever difficulty it is that you are facing. Those difficulties might be in the workplace or might be in some other surrounding of which you shouldn’t really be part of. In such situations, the stoic would have you ask yourself: Is this really the life I want? Every time you get upset, a little bit of life leaves the body. Are these really the things on which you want to spend that priceless resource? Don’t be afraid to make a change – you have the freedom to do so, however big the issue may seem.