Stoic Spring Cleaning

As the days grow longer and the weather warms up, it’s the perfect time to do some cleaning and decluttering…of your mind! Just like we can accumulate too much stuff around the house, we can also find ourselves saddled with old mental habits that are broken and useless. We need to throw some of it out. So let’s take some time to do a mental cleanup, Stoic-style.

We will be guided by this passage from Marcus Aurelius:

In this quote Marcus is telling us how to get rid of thoughts and attitudes we don’t need anymore. Let’s go through line by line and see how to do it.

Wipe out vain imagination.

Don’t keep thoughts around if they are not helping you accomplish your goals and become a good person. Epictetus says we should not allow any thought to hang around if it’s not objectively true. Whenever troubling thoughts arise—for example, worries about the future, or negative thoughts about your own abilities—trying asking yourself if that statement is objectively true. Could it possibly be just an opinion? Or maybe it’s just one possible explanation among other possible explanations? Would a neutral person, looking at the evidence, agree that it’s 100% true? If you can’t say for sure that it’s true and necessary, it’s not worth keeping. Throw it out.

Learn to recognize what is happening to yourself or another.

Strong emotions have a tendency to take over our minds and even our bodies, for example by raising our heartrate and making us feel tense and hot-headed. When you see someone else angry or worried, how do they look and act? You can be sure you look and act the same way when you are experiencing those negative emotions. Learn to recognize the physical symptoms of anger, fear, worry, and other negative emotions so you can see when they have you in their grip.

No longer allow your passions to pull you around like a puppet. 

None of us want to be controlled by another person or thing. Yet we often allow ourselves to be controlled by negative passions. The first step in stopping this is recognizing what is happening. Once you recognize that you are under the sway of a strong negative emotion, you can stop or at least reduce these emotions through the Stoic practices below.

Confine your attention to the present time. 

Do not ruminate on past misfortunes or on your worries for the future. Take things one moment or one day at a time. Whatever is happening right now in your life, you can handle it for today. Then tomorrow, tell yourself that you can handle it for that day. Then do the same the next day. There is nothing you can’t handle for one day.

Divide and analyze every given object into the material and the causal. 

This might sound strange or somewhat technical, but it’s actually just a way of making ourselves see things objectively. Marcus explains this technique in more detail in this passage:

As Marcus clearly explains, the purpose of this exercise is to strip away false appearances to get to the truth of things, to find out what really matters. As he says, “nothing is as effective in creating greatness of mind.” If greatness of mind sounds appealing to you, you know you’re on the right path with this exercise.

Let the wrong committed by another remain where it first arose. 

This may be the most challenging one of all! We have a natural desire to punish people who wrong us, or to prove we are right and put them in their place. But Marcus—who was the most powerful man in the world and who could have easily punished anyone he wanted—reminded himself to leave the wrong where it first arose. You don’t want to lower yourself by doing something unnecessarily mean or taking revenge on someone. Before lashing out or striking back, think very carefully about whether you will be damaging your own character through your actions. Only take action if you are sure what you are doing is right, necessary, and beneficial.

Give thought to your last hour.

While we often avoid thinking about death, pausing to remember our mortality actually helps us to live with more courage and appreciation for each day we are alive. We don’t fully understand the gift of life until we start thinking about death. The purpose of this exercise is not to be sad but to be full of energy, purpose, and gratitude. This inspires us to live fully every day.

Thank you for reading the Stoicare newsletter! We wish you well as you put these Stoic exercises into practice.