Today,
We will be practicing a technique called Premeditatio Malorum.
It can be translated as Premeditation of a Diversity.
It has also been called Negative Visualization.
The basic idea is thus,
If we psychologically rehearse the things that will cause us worry or anxiety or fear,
This will achieve three things.
First of all,
It will help us to prepare in such a way to avoid this catastrophe from happening.
So if we were to imagine our house getting set on fire,
We would likely set fire alarms in our homes.
The second reason is that if this were to happen,
Because we have experienced this in our mind's eye,
We will be less affected by it.
In other words,
We will build our resilience to it because we will be practicing virtue in the face of such adversity in our own mind.
This is a very important idea because building resilience for its own sake is not very stoic,
But practicing virtue in the face of adversity is very stoic.
The third reason is that after this visualization,
This premeditation of adversity,
We can feel grateful that it has not happened.
Whenever we think about the things that we feel grateful for,
The other side of the coin is the realization that we could be without these things.
And one of the best ways to feel grateful is to imagine being without the things we have.
Anxiety works a lot like a flame on a fuel source.
To get rid of the anxiety,
We have to burn the fuel source quicker.
And we can burn it quicker by inducing anxiety within ourselves consciously.
It's counterintuitive,
But this is one of the most effective ways of dealing with anxiety.
And it's known as a type of exposure therapy,
Where we actually go into the thing that makes us afraid in order to make ourselves feel less emotionally affected by it.
With this knowledge,
Bring to mind the situation or event that causes you anxiety.
What we will be doing is picturing the event,
But instead of cognitively distancing ourselves like we did in the view from above,
We will be doing the opposite.
We will be trying to make ourselves as anxious as possible.
So picture the event through your own eyes.
Make the colors bright and vivid.
Make the details that make you anxious large.
And try to stir up the anxious emotions within your body.
So now that you're picturing this event that causes you anxiety in vivid detail,
Simply replay through it all the way through from beginning to end.
And just allow the worst case scenario to happen.
When you're done,
Try to increase the intensity by imagining that thing that you're anxious about happening today,
Soon,
And replay it again with the knowledge that it will happen to you today.
Now let's increase the intensity even more.
How could you make this situation worse?
Perhaps you are naked or there are people looking at you or there's some form of humiliation.
Dream up whatever you can to make it worse.
Then replay it again now.
Now let's replay this situation that causes you anxiety a final time.
And dream up a way that this could be even more anxiety-inducing for you.
Try and get creative.
Try to really make it a situation that causes you maximum amount of anxious suffering.
And replay that in vivid detail through your own eyes,
Very bright and loud.
Now,
Before we end this meditation,
I'd like you to give yourself a pat on the back.
You've done really,
Really good work here,
Difficult work that many people would not be willing to do.
So I'd like to congratulate you for that.
After this visualization,
Try and do something that makes you feel good to try and celebrate this event in some way.
And also try and feel a little bit grateful that whatever is causing you anxiety,
It's not happening right now.
And I hope you feel quite privileged actually that you are in a position to work through your anxieties in the way that you're doing now.
Many people don't have that ability.
So it's definitely a curse to feel anxious and afraid in life.
But it's most certainly a blessing to have the intelligence and resources to overcome that.
And what a great journey and adventure that is.
