There is no question that the world is an alarming place right now. So suddenly, too! It’s enough to make even the strongest among us panic. And this is a natural response.
The ancient Stoics wrote that fear is a reaction outside of our control. Staying afraid is a choice.
Using this 2,000-year-old wisdom, the Daily Stoic recently posted 7 tips to help you come out on the other side better than you were before.
1. Accept what is outside of your control … work on what is within
“Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: Some things are within our control, and some things are not. It is only after you have faced up to this fundamental rule and learned to distinguish between what you can and can’t control that inner tranquility and outer effectiveness become possible.”
~ Epictetus
2. Focus on the smallest thing you can do right now
“Concentrate every minute like a Roman— like a man— on doing what’s in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice. And on freeing yourself from all other distractions. Yes, you can— if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered, irritable.”
~ Marcus Aurelius
3. Examine the costs of panic and emotional reactions
“How much more harmful are the consequences of anger, fear and grief than the circumstances that aroused them in us!”
~ Marcus Aurelius
4. Seek stillness
“Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well-ordered mind than a man’s ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.”
~ Seneca
5. Have confidence in your ability to make the best of anything
“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
~ Marcus Aurelius
6. Limit Your News Consumption
“Do the things external which fall upon you distract you? Give yourself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around.”
~ Marcus Aurelius
7. Take care of your relationships
I can lay down for mankind a rule, in short compass, for our duties in human relationships: all that you behold, that which comprises both god and man, is one – we are the parts of one great body. Nature produced us related to one another, since she created us from the same source and to the same end. She engendered in us mutual affection, and made us prone to friendships.”
~ Seneca
Certainly, the normal way of doing things has been significantly altered. Now is the time to follow the Stoic practices more than ever. Don’t allow yourself to be crushed by life, Marcus Aurelius said; start with what’s in front of you. Get
up early
. Be deliberate. Exercise. Set up and stick to a diet. Create limits and order. Clean your house.
And, there is no time like the present!
