4 Components of Stoic Wellbeing

Components of Stoic wellbeing

At Stoicare we’ve simplified the steps to Stoic wellbeing into four major components.

1. Healthy management of stress and emotions. We all know how stressful modern life is, and we’ve all experienced negative emotions such as anger, sadness, worry, and self-doubt. Stoicism can help us manage these by reframing our beliefs, paying attention to our thoughts, and remembering what is truly important in life.

2. Resilience in the face of challenges and difficulties. We have a simple formula for building resilience and making good decisions in tough times. We call it the 4 Cs of Stoicism: character + cosmos + control = choice. We’ll talk about this formula more in a future video.

3. Finding purpose and fulfillment in your life. You’re not going to find deep meaning and true satisfaction by chasing external markers of validation. Deep happiness comes from cultivating your best inner qualities, connecting with others, appreciating the beauty of the world, and sharing your personal gifts in a meaningful way.

4. Thriving in personal and professional roles. By caring wisely for other people, and also by respecting and caring for yourself, we can enjoy rewarding relationships and fulfilling roles with family, friends, our workplace, our community, and our society.

How do you manage stress and emotions?

Now let’s talk about some Stoic strategies for managing stress and emotions. First it’s important to recognize that our emotions are directly related to our thoughts and beliefs about life. We’re used to thinking that our emotions result automatically from what happens to us—like if we go on vacation we’ll automatically be happy, if we’re stuck doing overtime at work, we’ll automatically feel sad, and if we’re running behind on a deadline, we’ll automatically feel stressed. In this view we have no control over our emotions or stress levels. We’re at the mercy of whatever happens to us.

But Stoics take a different view of things. Stoics say that we have much more power over our emotions than is commonly believed. Just because something unpleasant happens, like when you’re stuck working long hours at the office, that doesn’t mean you have to automatically feel sad or stressed. It’s all about how you approach the task and your beliefs about what is happening.

Let’s say you reframe your disappointment and remind yourself how fortunate you are to have a job in the first place, or that you are capable of earning a good living for yourself. As Marcus Aurelius reminds us,

In this way, we have much more power over our emotions than we might realize.

Thank you for being part of the Stoicare community! Feel free to share your thoughts or questions in the comments below, or get in touch with us at [email protected].