This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s summer editorial intern Dylan Fraize. Find him on Instagram at @fraize.jpg. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
In a fast-paced world with new anxieties arising every day, how can you stay calm? Through no help from the internet, more and more young people struggle with mental health. While modern-day solutions haven’t been able to address these issues, why not look to the past? Specifically in ancient Greece where the philosophy of Stoicism blossomed. Stoicism for anxiety, is an ancient cure to a modern problem.
Stoicism began in Athens after Zeno of Citium was shipwrecked and left with nothing. He began to read the works of Socrates and became active in the academia of Athens. He believed that life was a spider web of cause and effect creating a rational world. The spider web of rational cause and effect is called logos. While Zeno is credited with the beginning of stoicism many thinkers came after him like Marcus Aurelius, Chrysippus, Seneca, and Epictetus. Each person adapts the stoic philosophy to their unique experiences.
Like all other philosophical ideologies, stoicism has some core tenets. The most prevalent principle of stoicism is to view the world as it is rather than idealistically. Rather than question why the world isn’t the way you’d like, accept the fact and act accordingly. This ideology makes a person who can better handle hardships or confrontations.
The Principles Of Stoicism
The 4 cardinal virtues of stoicism are as follows: wisdom, temperance, justice, and courage.
Wisdom stresses the importance of being knowledgeable. Knowing what’s right from wrong and having a pragmatic approach towards life. Having a craving for learning more and applying what you have learned to everyday situations. You know the dangers of being ignorant of knowledge readily available.
Temperance is the virtue of moderation and restraint. Similar to Aristotle’s virtue theory, this value of moderation and restraint creates a person who knows when to speak up or listen. A person with restraint doesn’t live in excess but keeps the essentials. This moderation doesn’t just apply to material goods, it’s also the moderation of pleasure or reflection. A person that is confident but not cocky, brave but not reckless, retrospective but not living in the past.
Justice as a virtue is to treat someone fairly regardless of how they’ve done wrong. A just person can take the ego or vengeful aspect out of their decision-making. Rather than only thinking about justice when it came to prosecution, stoics applied this tenet to life. Being just is the decisions you make for the greater good. Do the right thing and the rest doesn’t matter. Some late stoics believe justice to be the crown virtue among the four.
Courage is to face defeat or misfortune and continue. The famous stoic Seneca said, “Sometimes even to live is an act of courage”. Courage as a virtue may be the catalyst for the other 3. Without courage, you can’t voice your beliefs or seek the wisdom needed. Deciding for the greater good may face backlash but without courage, you could never become this virtuous person. Without courage, you’ll never take the first step to stoicism.
While stoicism has been around for hundreds of years it hasn’t been spared from misconceptions. Stoics can control their emotions and be virtuous, but that doesn’t mean repressing emotions. This is where stoicism interpreted the wrong way can become dangerous. Rather than display either extreme of the spectrum of emotion stoics act with restrain and moderation. That doesn’t mean to be a stoic you must censor how you feel.
Stoicism For Today
Practicing stoicism is not an ancient philosophy but rather a unique answer to modern problems. Through the generations of stoics, each person adapted the tenets to their lives. Unlike other theologies, stoicism is not a strict way of living but instead a list of values that can alter the way you interact with the world.
Stoicism offers a way to think through problems that may be tough to face like anxiety, self-esteem, or trauma. Opposed to catastrophizing and creating a harmful cycle live in today. Accepting that you can not change other people’s actions or perceptions. The only person you can control is yourself. While this may feel disheartening accepting is an act of courage.
Becoming virtuous also means having correct judgments about the world including yourself. To people stuck by anxiety, it’s important to understand what’s real and what you’ve made up. Anxiety is a fear of what is yet to happen. Stoics live in the present and what they know to be true about the present. Using this part of stoicism may help break the fear and dread of anxiety. Seneca said, “We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than reality”.
Social media is an all-encompassing part of young people’s mental health. Whether social media causes you to compare yourself, feel left out, or seek approval all these feelings and more are manufactured. If you put your screen down or limit yourself, these feelings will subside. About 58% of Americans say social media negatively affects their mental health. With a younger demographic spending more time on social media platforms, when will this stop?
It’s hard now to imagine a world without social media, but you must try or at least limit yourself. Applying the virtues of stoicism to social media is the answer that may help you. You must be courageous to take this step in acknowledging the problem and taking the risks to break the cycle. You’re choosing to break a habit that you may be comfortable in. You must have the temperance to moderate yourself. Having the discipline to stop yourself from excess time online. You must have the wisdom to know right from wrong. To know what may be causing you the stress and how people have addressed it in their own lives. You must be just to decide for the greater good. To not perpetuate the falsehoods found on social media.
How have you dealt with stress or anxiety in your life? Have you ever used stoicism for anxiety? How do you think philosophy can be used as a tool? Let us know in the comments below!
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