The Stoic Tactic To Break The Cycle Of Stress

In this episode, I explore the topic of stress and worry. I begin by looking at the game most of us play, and then offer a Stoic alternative recommended by Epictetus. The technique is based on the view of taking all the things that cause us stress as a trade off between that feeling and the feeling of peace. What if we have more choice than we previously thought?

Transcript

Let's talk about stress and in particular the cycle of stress.

Many of us when we are Experiencing stress we also add a story to it So let's just say we don't do our work on time We don't submit our university paper at the right time We say in our mind I will end up broke and ruined if I don't do better.

As parents We tell ourselves things like unless my children get good grades.

They will end up good for nothing Maybe we have a tense relationship with a parent if I upset my father by telling him the truth He will hate me Maybe we have big aspirations in life and if I cannot travel the world that means I'm a failure.

Maybe we have a Partner and we're not happy and we tell ourselves if I leave my wife She will be depressed and she won't cope and it will be all my fault In other words,

We have these rules these Unconscious rules almost a sort of if then if I do this Thing then something terrible will happen in cognitive behavioral therapy Which is something that I synthesize with my stoic practices and teachings in my courses We would call this fortune-telling or making assumptions or catastrophizing It's a sort of twisted thinking about reality and we convince ourselves that we have this Knowledge this godlike knowledge about what will happen.

I will end up broken ruined if I do not do better at work Well,

We don't know that and yet we're basing our entire Emotional life and well-being on that assumption but going deeper than that from a principles point of view In all of the examples that I just gave we are essentially worrying about external outcomes we are worrying about pieces in reality moving in ways that cause us pain and that type of worry is Influencing the way that we make decisions in the present So we never break up with our partner because we are convinced that this terrible thing Them becoming depressed and suicidal is going to happen so you could break down the cycle of stress For most of us like this we worry about a future outcome Let's take the outcome of doing well at work.

Did the outcome come true?

Then yes,

It did I can be happy now we tell ourselves and if it doesn't then I cannot be happy now So there are these rules I have a goal.

It's causing me worry.

Did I achieve it?

Okay,

I can stop worrying Everything will be terrible and what happens either way a new cycle of stress comes along We achieve a goal.

We have momentary relief cycle of stress comes along again.

We don't achieve a goal We feel extra stress then we feel some relief and then a new cycle of stress will come along again.

It's almost like a Stress rat race a stress treadmill and why this is so problematic is because this cycle of stress It doesn't have a lasting outcome for happiness It's based on promises about the future that may or may not come true in other words It's sort of like gambling will I achieve my goal won't I achieve my goal?

Will I achieve my goal won't I achieve my goal and we are knocked around by the randomness of fortune?

So cycle of stress one I will end up broken ruined if I do not do better at work Did you improve at work?

Yeah,

You did improve at work.

Okay,

Okay I can relax I can relax a week goes by cycle of stress too unless my children get good grades They will end up good for nothing Are they gonna get good grades right and it just goes on and on and on from a stoic perspective?

Many of us are kind of addicted to playing a game of Sacrificing our present peace of mind for the promise of happiness in the future One of the issues that the Stoics recognize with anxiety is that anxiety can block us from enjoying an acceptable present Things could be fine in this moment as you look around your room things could be fine But with sufficient worry about the future it can actually prevent you from appreciating the present It's essentially a distraction that puts blinkers on you and all you can think about is the future Stress the future worry that you face and some of us actually take on some stress in the present For the promise of avoiding greater stress in the future,

You know like someone who's studying extremely hard for a medical degree,

You know,

Yes,

I'll experience stress now so that one day I don't have to experience any stress at all and I can just relax and That's not really how things work And so if you were to ask epic teeters or marks already us,

They would probably say that it is better to upset our father or spouse with authentic expression communication than to spend decades feeling uneasy and fake in the relationship and they would say it's better to be poor and free of grief than to be rich and Miserable what they are looking at is virtue excellence of character courage discipline just this Practical wisdom even when things are difficult.

There's a concept I learned from Dr.

Aziz gazeboora in a book called not nice,

Which is all about Assertiveness and expressing yourself authentically and he distinguishes between harm and hurt,

You know So we can go through life and we can harm people right to harm someone he defines that as the intentional desire to punish Or afflict psychological or physical damage on another person.

It's about the intention to hurt them abuses Harm people hurt on the other hand is just part of being in any kind of human relationship You will hurt people even if you have the best intentions Even if you care about someone you will hurt them,

You know,

Imagine you're looking after a toddler I have a toddler and he or she really wants to stay in the park for another hour But you have to go home.

You have to prepare dinner.

You have to keep them on a schedule for their own benefit You're not trying to harm them In fact,

You're actually trying to help them you try to make them have the best possible day ever to make sure that they have A good meal to make sure that they have a good sleep so they can enjoy their day tomorrow But they might not understand and they might get hurt by that decision in some sense.

It's unavoidable But harming loved ones is avoidable It is a decision.

Sometimes we'll do the right thing and people will get hurt But we can decide if we want to hurt people that is a choice within our control So going back to stress every time we experience a situation that would ordinarily have caused a stress We can ask ourselves a simple question.

This is something I do myself all the time.

I ask myself is this situation worth sacrificing my peace of mindful It's a very simple question is this situation worth sacrificing my peace of mindful and ask it seriously about a week ago,

I Bought a coffee full latte It was exactly what I wanted in that moment put it in my car just before I drove off I picked it up to place it in a different cup holder the lid Fell off the coffee and the entire cup Spilled all over the floor where I was driving all over the mat All over my shoes and the coffee was gone.

That was it.

There's nothing left in the cup I didn't even take a sip and this knee-jerk reaction of you know,

Like this flash of frustration or You know feeling like I was a victim of fate kind of really quickly flashed through my mind And then I just asked myself that question is this spilled coffee worth?

Sacrificing my peace of mindful and In about two seconds,

I concluded that it was not worth sacrificing my peace of mindful And in fact,

My peace of mind is the most valuable thing that I have it's infinitely more valuable than any amount of caffeinated beverage and so I Ignored it.

It didn't matter anymore.

The coffee was where the coffee was the cup was where the cup was but I still had my peace of mind and so in the end who won and This example is a great example because the Stoics the ancient Stoics would encourage us to practice with smaller things Like spilled coffee and work our way up to greater and greater things,

You know Like your phone breaks your car breaks down some important project fails Is this situation worth sacrificing my peace of mindful very few of us would answer?

Yes to that situation and if you do answer yes If you do think it's reasonable to trade your peace of mind for whatever situation is happening by all means go and do it Maybe there will be times where that is Acceptable to you,

But very often when we do sacrifice our tranquility We are not only miserable,

But we're also less effective a lot of us cling to this idea that Frustration and anxiety make us perform better I don't know about you,

But when I look at high achievers at work and I mean athletes musicians even fighters they have a look on their face that is engaged and Attentive alert,

But when they're at their best They don't look stressed only when they are failing floundering struggling suffering Then they look stressed and I'm not so sure that that stress helps them recover Necessarily and so we can go through life now with this New way of operating this new way of perceiving stresses as a trade for our peace of mind So let's just say we get a warning from our boss in work if you don't Work harder.

I'm gonna write you a warning.

Okay,

This happens and then we ask yourself a question Is this worth sacrificing a peace of mind for if the answer is yes,

Then you are about To embark on a cycle of stress and then you'll have the following thought I will end up broke and ruined if I do not Work better.

Do I achieve the outcome?

Yes No and you go through a cycle of stress until the next one comes along and that becomes Your habit your way of dealing with stress or we can say no This is actually not worth exchanging my peace of mind for so we keep our peace of mind We relax into it and then we say to ourselves.

Okay,

I have my peace of mind I've also had that information from my boss.

What do I want to do about it?

So it doesn't make you less effective.

It actually makes you more effective and you escape the cycles of stress Generally speaking.

I like the model of Everything being a trade-off in one way or another nothing is completely free.

You can't be Productive at everything on earth,

Right?

You have to be unproductive at certain things so you can be productive at other things There is a limited amount of time and energy and resources that you have in your life So trade-offs are always going to happen and it's also I think wise to lower our expectations about Reality certainly you can aim up you can aim high You can work hard.

You can cultivate skills definitely do these things But we also have to recognize that no matter what we do There will be times where people are rude to us and that's it There will be times when family members and co-workers say the wrong things where they are insensitive and lacking empathy This is part of life And if every time something like this happens where someone treats us rudely or we spill our coffee Or we get a warning from a boss if we allow our tranquility every time to be disturbed In some sense we are entrusting a peace of mind to them We are saying you can have my peace of mind and you can do what you like with it You can stamp all over it because every time you do something that I don't like I'm going to allow my own peace of mind to be owned by you and you hear comparisons to slavery and Discussions about freedom in stoic writings a lot.

Well,

This is what it's really about You know people call themselves free people say they have freedom,

But then at the same time Same individuals will allow their emotions to be owned by someone else And so don't be like that make the decision to ask yourself that question Is this worth sacrificing my peace of mind over and then go from there?

Reviews

Perfect reminder! “Is this worth sacrificing my peace of mind over?” Thank u.

Thank you this is very helpful. Namaste

Wonderful talk Jon! I appreciate the combination of CBT and stoicism. I really think that simple question could be literally life changing and I’m going to start implementing it right away in my daily life. Take good care and keep up your amazing work. We are blessed to have you here on Insite Timer🦋

Shines a light on the stories we tell ourselves. The difference between hurting and harming others. Wise and insightful advice for a more peaceful life. Excellent thank you 🙏

Very helpful. I appreciate the idea of an exchange of a balanced mindset (Buddha Nature) with anger or frustration or despair when life doesn't meet our expectations.
Is a situation worth that exchange?
Ultimately, staying in touch and aligned with our Buddha Nature is the most effective way to experience life. Thank you for this lesson

Such a great way to empower others to consider if a situation is worth loosing one’s peace over…. In action this skill reduces negative stress and help us living a more fulfilled life. Thank you!

This will definitely help me. He points out how stressing doesn’t help. I am going to listen to this over and over

Thanks ❤️

🙏

Excellent thank you 🙏

I truly appreciate this perspective about peace of mind being a choice. The examples given were helpful. Thank you!

Brilliant. So grateful for your wise, succinct explanations as always Jon. The way you discussed peace of mind was awesome, and also regarding everything involving some kind of tradeoff in life - so refreshingly realistic and personally resonant. 🙏🙂☮️🌿🌻

Overall this was useful and thought provoking for me, but I very much disagree with your definition of the difference between harm and hurt being intention. Abuse is not always conscious, or intentional, but it is always harmful. Eg neglecting the needs of someone you're caring for = abuse, but might be done due to your own lack of resources.

Great as always. So simply stated! Makes me wonder now why I’ve always had a problem with people robbing me of my peace of mind. Thank you for the tools to overcome this ✌🏼💕

Excellent talk. Reminder to self not to give away my peace of mind 😌 thank you Jon 🙏🦉