COLUMN: Stoicism — A countermeasure to stress
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By Kristian Fors
To achieve freedom and happiness, you need to grasp this basic truth: some things in life are under your control, and others are not.
Within your control are your own opinions, aspirations, desires, and the things that repel you. We always have a choice about the contents and character of our inner lives.
Not within your control is literally everything else. You must remember that these things are externals, and none of your concern.
—Epictetus, Enchiridion
College students tend to have a great deal of stress. Tests, social issues, and other sources of anxiety can prove overwhelming for some students. According to the 2015 College Health Assessment, 85.6% of students had felt overwhelmed by life in that last year. Additionally, 55% of students claimed that their biggest stressor was related to academics according to a study conducted by the Journal of American College Health. It’s very apparent that this is an issue that students across the nation struggle with; students here at Utah State University are no different.
Stoicism is an ancient Greco-Roman philosophy centered around virtue, character, and logic. It’s the counter-philosophy to Epicureanism, a philosophy centered on pleasure as the centerpoint of life. Classic Stoic texts include the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, The Enchiridion of Epictetus, and Letters and Essays of Seneca the Younger. While Stoicism may be an ancient philosophy, it is most certainly not antiquated. The same ideas that stoic philosophers deemed relevant in their own time are still applicable today.
A Stoic philosopher named Epictetus proposed a concept known as the dichotomy of control. The general idea is this: There are things that you have control over and others that you do not. Anxiety and stress sprout from either one of these variables. If anxiety is being produced from something that you have control over, there is no point in wasting energy through stress when that energy could be utilized to fix the issue at hand. Stress in this capacity is merely an indicator that there is a problem that needs to solved. On the other hand, if anxiety is being produced from something that you have no control over, there is absolutely no logical reason to expend unnecessary energy on a problem that you can’t fix. This type of stress is useless and can be viewed as a form of resentment towards life. If this general attitude is accepted and implemented, it becomes very easy to discern between the two situations.
This concept has an incredibly wide range of application. Lots of people tend to stress over their appearance and feelings of inadequacy. Why? Genetics are set in stone. Why worry about something that you can’t change? Let’s say that someone insults you. The insult is either based in reality or completely fraudulent and originates from that individual’s own resentment. If the insult is false, there is no reason to worry about it. If the insult is true, it’s either something that is fixable or something that is not. Regardless, there is still no reason to stress about it.
Returning to academics, imagine that there is an exam. A priori, stress does not make sense when that energy can be devoted to studying. Post-hoc, stress does not make sense because what happened in the past cannot be changed, and whatever happens is out of your control at that point.
Seneca, another Stoic philosopher, once stated that “He robs present ills of their power who has perceived their coming beforehand.” Seneca suggested imagining and visualizing tragedies to acknowledge that they are indeed a possibility. Should such an incident occur, this prior acknowledgment helps to mitigate the sting factor and allows for the development of a contingency plan. He illustrated this idea by suggesting that when parents tuck their children into bed at night, the parents should imagine waking up to find their children missing. At face value, this may sound like a depressing philosophy but it’s really quite the contrary. The anticipation of life going terribly wrong evokes a greater level of gratitude when life works out well.
Modern Cognitive Behavioral Theory (CBT) incorporates many aspects of Stoicism. CBT’s aim is to eliminate or mitigate social anxiety. Albert Ellis, the psychologist who fathered the CBT movement was an admirer of the teachings of Epictetus and Seneca and incorporated their teachings into his own Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT). The empirical data shows that CBT is effective. This data testifies of the effectiveness of the underlying Stoic principles as well.
The clarity of Stoic thought can help students focus on what’s important in their lives. There’s a reason that a philosophy this old has retained an active following over the years–because it’s practical. The potential stress relief that results from Stoicism is great, but individuals will only learn that if they try it out for themselves.
Kristian R. Fors is a student at Utah State University majoring in Finance and Economics and is an opinion columnist for the Utah Statesman. He can be reached at krfors@gmail.com.