What brings you suffering and pain?
More often than not it's the focus on future and what might the future bring.
We are hard-wired to fear the loss of something we already have. Even if it's not in our control.
For example, we fear losing our standard of living.
If you are used to eating good warm lunch every day then switching to eating a stale bread does not seem that appealing. In fact, just thinking about that is likely to cause anxiety in some people.
Or maybe you have a great relationship with someone that seems to be on the edge of a cliff and you have no parachute. The thought of losing the connection that you have can be painful.
Or you are afraid to leave everything behind and travel the world.
What if you come back and you won't be able to integrate anymore? Or you lose all your friends? And how would you even fund the travels anyway? And have you seen the TV lately? There are terrorists and dangerous refugees everywhere ...
Or maybe you are afraid that if you take a leap of faith and start your own business you'll lose your house and end up on the street, or worse, in your parents basement and basically embodying the nerd stereotype...
What does all that have in common?
Basically, none of those fears happened yet.
Though the thought of it that keeps bouncing in your skull is torturing you inside.
Just the mere thought of suffering actually brings you suffering.
Think about that for a moment...
When was the last time you experienced some hardship?
How was it? Did you survive?
Think of that moment. Was it that bad as you imagined it to be?
Maybe you lost your job. Maybe you got kicked out of University (in which case, lucky you :D).
Whatever it was I will wager that the thought of it was more painful than the actual event.
And now think of the times when you had to make a decision to change something in your life.
There was a new opportunity you could take though it is not certain it would work out.
Maybe a new job, maybe a new relationship, or moving to a new country.
Let's use starting a business as an example.
You have a decent and well-paying job in a good company. And for whatever reason you might even think that it's stable and safe (don't even get me started on that :D).
At least it brings you a steady income each month. And this income provides you with a standard of living you are accustomed to. It pays your rent, bills, maybe debts, food, even your Starbucks coffee.
And you can lose all that if you start a business. No more Starbucks Coffee.
Heck, you are probably right.
You will most likely have to lower your standard of living, work more, see your friends less and live very frugally. At least at the beginning.
And the thought of losing what you already have can be enough to stop most people from even trying.
Enter, Stoicism
So let me introduce Stoicism and Socrates, the saviour of the day.
Stoicism is a philosophical system conceived during the Greko-Roman times for educated Elite where surplus of food and big orgies was a common ocurence.
But, I hear you say, 'how does a philosophy from more than 2000 years ago help me with my problems now?
What would they know about my first world problems? And in any case, philosophy is complicated, I have no time to learn that'.
Well, the beauty in Stoicism comes from its focus on practicality and simplicity, both in portraying the ideas as well as the simplicity of life.
Having an encyclopedia full of wise words from wise men with beards would not help you if you won't even open it.
Or, if you fall into a trap I often do - you read it without actually applying what you learned.
That's why in Stoicism you get some actionable steps you can do straight away.
And Stoic teachings are used nowadays even for treating depression (depression being something I went through before) as well as in competitive environments like Sports.
Okay, So What Does Stoicism Teach?
If I have to summarize it in one sentence (and my interpretation), or one lesson that speaks loudest to me, it would be:
Choose to practice the worst case scenario, what you are afraid of, and the pain and suffering it might bring and by experiencing it you will see it's not as bad as you thought. And as a bonus your resilience will improve as well.
Or in the words of Seneca the Younger
“It is precisely in times of immunity from care that the soul should toughen itself beforehand for occasions of greater stress, and it is while fortune is kind that it should fortify itself against her violence.” – Seneca the Younger
Your true spirit, your real resilience can be built and tested only at the times of difficulty.
Or in other words - hard training, easy combat.
How do you know if you can handle being crushed and destroyed unless you've been there before?
Human spirit rises in the times of difficulty and by being challenged.
My (immediate) ancestors didn't have an easy life. It was a fight for survival.
Just to be able to eat they had to work hard. And what did they get out of that hard work?
Bunch of potatoes ...
And nowadays, I can get avocados, mangoes and coconuts.
They survived though. They were resilient enough to keep on ploughing and going from one day to another.
How? Cause they kept on moving, one step at a time, dealing with what was right in front of them and not thinking of some future troubles.
And that built up their spirit and resilience.
They must have been tough motherfuckers.
Be a bouncy ball.
If life decides to smash you at the ground, bounce back up with even more force and hit the bully in the face.
In life, there is more things that frighten us than the ones that can actually crush us.
We suffer more in our heads and imagination than in reality. The small balls of uncontrolled thoughts can brig havoc to your head filling your waking hours with "What ifs".
Though here is a simple truth. Your fears might never come upon you.
And even if they do, it might not be as bad as you thought.
You suffer by thinking of the future rather than by dealing with what is before you in the present moment.
'Okay, I am intrigued', you say, 'but how do I start?'
Great question.
Let me start with a quote:
'No battle can be won in the study, and theory without practice is dead. ' - Alexander Suvorov
If you want a man not to flinch when the trouble comes, train him for the trouble.
That means you have to practice suffering/ discomfort on a regular basis.
And Seneca (and me) suggest that you set aside at least few days per month for this practice.
Now, that doesn't mean you have to take out a whip and lash yourself until you bleed (Though you can if you want).
One simple ways proposed by Seneca in his letters:
'be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: "Is this the condition that I feared?'
This could mean that you eat the cheapest food you can get (for example potatoes, adding some butter if you feel fancy) and dressing yourself in plain white t-shirt and jeans and going about your day like that.
So let's take this back to the example of our entrepreneur-to-be who is afraid to start his business.
How could Stoicism help him?
Well, even just by practicing the above would already prepare him for a lowered standard of living.
But let's take this further and use Stoicism in one exercise.
It has three simple steps.
- Write down list of the worst case scenarios of doing something.
- Write down what you could do to mitigate the risk of that happening or minimize the impact.
- What would it take to get back where I started?
So in our 'starting a business' example it could look like this:
- In worst case, I will have very little money to eat and I won't be able to afford my flat anymore.
- I could save up few months worth of living expenses beforehand. And I could call up friends to ask if I could crash on their couch.
- If my idea doesn't work out, I can spend a month getting a similar job I have right now, maybe even starting a bit lower and then work hard for 6 months to get back where I started.
Writing it down like this makes the decission to do it relatively simple.
Of course, everyone has different circumstances and no situation is the same, but by writing down the worst case scenario and what you could do about it, you might realize it wouldn't be that bad at the end anyway.
And that would free you to take the leap, to make the decision to do something.
With this kind of power, no wonder Tim Ferriss is a big proponent of this exercise.
What do I do and How did it help me?
Recent events in my life made me realize the power of Stoicism and how big of an effect it can have.
It makes dealing with certain kind of hurdles very easy, especially if practiced in advance.
I might not have considered myself Stoic, but when I look at my life in retrospect,
it would be easy to say that many things that I did or do are Stoic in nature.
I was homeless many times before. Sometimes by choice, sometimes by fortune.
Though first time, it was not by choice.
In fact, it wouldn't even occur to me that something like that could happen.
It was just for few days, and I survived.
Second time, I saw a possibility that something like this could happen (I was traveling with little money) but with my previous experience it didn't worry me too much.
Sure, when the time came and I had to sleep on a street I wasn't that happy. Nor was I jumping of excitement during that cold night.
But I wasn't torturing myself with the fear of having no place to sleep at beforehand.
I just dealt with it when it arose.
Fast forward to this day and more experiences like that behind me, I can say I even seek out being homeless on a regular basis. And the more I did it, the more I seek it out.
It's not all glamour and I woulnd't say it's easy, especially for extended period of time.
But it can be done. And I know I can survive.
That led me to living a homeless lifestyle by choice now.
What do I mean by that?
I won't go into all the details in this post as I'll write another post about it at some point, but to simplify things:
I don't have a regular roof over my head. I don't shackle myself with contracts to pay rent and all my life is in my backpack. So my home is always with me.
And this gives me great sense of freedom and possibilities.
And much, much more.
It enables me to live my life the way I want to. Or at least, where I want to.
And it makes me more resilient.
So when recently a situation arose where I suddenly had nowhere to sleep at I didn't freak out.
In reality, when that happened I just went into a 'Let's deal with this shit first' mode.
I set aside all the other problems and focused on what I could do about it.
Though the best thing is, I was like a rock. It didn't move me. I felt stable as never before.
I felt very peaceful.
I knew I can do this. Even if I didn't know how exactly at that point.
And it was an opportunity for a 'Stoic exercise'.
(But if I knew that meant I'd sleep in the toilet of a library I'd be way more excited about it:D.)
And this was also an inspiration for this post.
Regularly practising discomfort and pain makes me very resilient to it, and it actually makes me seek it out.
I am not afraid of 'the darkness' because I know that out of darkness I come out shining even stronger.
It's what moulds me.
All the 'pains' I went through makes me the man I am today.
And same goes for you.
So don't fear the darkness, embrace it.
Embrace the possibility to grow stronger.
What other things do I do to practice?
- I sleep on the ground as much as I can
- Sometimes I eat just rice and butter for days
- I get myself into potentially dangerous situations to test my mind and body
- I let my body experience pain and discomfort in various forms (though one could argue it's even pleasurable at times)
- I go into extremes of doing something (For example, working all day)
And probably much more that I don't even realize.
So go and get yourself discomfortable.
No more Netflix and Chill.
Extra Reading
One Letter from Socrates to read -Letter 18
Let me know how you will embrace Stoicism and discomfort.
And feel free to Upvote and Follow for more.
About the Author;
Hi, I am Joe and I love freedom.
Freedom of all sorts, social, financial, emotional, physical, freedom from your stuff or place.
My biggest passion is to show that it is possible to live life being free, work towards my freedom, and help others obtain their own versions of freedom.
I also love exploration and experimentation (of all senses).
My articles are about all of this (Freedom, exploration, experimentation)
as well as my own transparent and authentic experiences.
Image sources:
It doesn't quite work to put links here but you can always right-click on an image to see where it's from.