I have often observed that insouciant people seldom suffer from stress. They go about their business without thinking long of the consequences, accept setbacks philosophically, and keep trudging ahead despite criticism and opposition.
Seneca (4 BC-65 AD) did not regard insouciance as a valid philosophical stance because it reduces humans to a perceptual level. It makes humans prone to accidents of all sorts because they have not taken basic precautions.
Dogs and cats do not worry about the future because they lack the intellectual capacity to think long term, but who wants to expose himself to unnecessary risks?
Who wants to live like a dog or cat, vulnerable to changes in circumstances? Who wants to be unable to make meaningful progress? Don’t we all want to improve our lives and build a better future for ourselves?
Insouciance does not work for humans even if it’s portrayed as a winning strategy in some fictional stories. In reality, our success depends on our willingness to think and act rationally.
Seneca: consistency between reason and ethics
In his 11th Letter to Lucilius, Seneca underlined that human rationality goes hand in hand with human morality. If we think, we must pass judgement, and if we pass judgement, we cannot regard evil behaviour as acceptable.
Consistency is the key to reducing stress, argued Seneca, in the sense that it enables humans to align their actions with the universe. It enables us to guide our lives according to universal orderly principles.
The 11th Letter to Lucilius praises natural ethical reactions. I am referring for instance to blushing. When someone feels that he has done something wrong, there is the tendency to blush in public because he realizes that other people are going to pass a negative judgement on him.
Seneca considered those physical reactions as genuine and moral, and draws on support from Socrates (470-399 BC) and Cato the Younger (95-46 BC), who had held similar views.
The 11th Letter to Lucilius praises those reactions because of their consistency with virtue. People will blush naturally when they realize that they have committed a mistake, and they don’t want their mistake to be known publicly.
Stress arises when the opposite takes place. Imagine that the person does not blush when he has committed a severe mistake that has come to public attention. Instead of blushing, he gives some weak excuse, denies everything, or blames someone else.
As time goes by, the situation will worsen. The culprit will have to misrepresent the details, raise false accusations against third parties, and keep telling lie after lie. His stress levels will go through the roof, as he sees his reputation fall apart.
Seneca: consistency between facts and feelings
Seneca recommends facing the music when we have made mistakes or behaved wrongly. We may have to suffer negative consequences, but we’ll be able to look ourselves in the mirror.
Demetrius the Cynic, a contemporary of Seneca’s, had made severe mistakes in his youth, but he opted for facing them. The consequence is that Demetrius had to endure poverty later, but he felt at ease with himself, free of stress and preoccupation.
Consistency is an earned virtue, something that each person needs to give shape according to his circumstances. It comes to a great extent from our willingness to acknowledge our errors, and keep looking for wisdom.
Seneca regards it as preferable to do what’s right and endure a difficult period rather than live a dishonourable life. If we opt for the former, we can live practically stress-free. If we opt for the latter, we will live in constant fear of being found out.
Cleanthes (330-230 BC) constitutes a compelling example of someone who had acknowledged his severe deficiencies and walked a long path of self-improvement. He had started as an illiterate manual labourer and devoted long years to gathering knowledge.
His effort took time to bear fruit, but his life had been free of stress for the most part. Cleanthes, explained Seneca, simply accepted his own situation, however poor, and took steps each day to improve the situation.
Seneca: consistency between present and future
Similarly, Seneca points out that Zeno of Citium (334-262 BC) had led a remarkably low-stress life despite losing all his possessions in a shipwreck. Zeno had been wealthy and found himself overnight in dire poverty.
Instead of worrying and lamenting his bad luck, Zeno didn’t panic. He realized that his situation was not going to get worse. Luckily, he had survived the shipwreck, while other passengers had died.
Zeno could have died as well. Thus, he was grateful enough for having survived the shipwreck. His attitude was realistic. It was hundred per cent aligned with the facts.
By means of cool, poised reasoning, Zeno kept stress at bay. He counted his blessings, not his losses; he looked at the future and made plans to rebuild his life. As a result, it didn’t take him long to embrace a new profession and achieve success.
In his 55th Letter to Lucilius, Seneca explains how to get rid of stress in adverse circumstances. He gives the example of Democritus of Abdera (460 -370 BC), a philosopher that had long suffered from defeatism and anxiety.
Democritus had strong reasons for his negative emotions. It is a fact that he was surrounded by deep corruption, ignorance, abuse and malevolence. However, he trained himself to look at things in perspective and reduce his own stress.
Seneca praises Democritus for his ability to grow consistent with the universal natural order. In order to minimize negative emotions such as stress, we need to elevate ourselves over little annoyances and look at the whole picture.
Stilbo of Megara, a contemporary of Socrates’, is another example given by Seneca in his 55th Letter to Lucilius. Stilbo had lost his possessions and family during a war, but instead of falling prey to despair, he had calmly rebuilt his life.
Many people would have tortured themselves emotionally for years. They would have suffered, endlessly thinking about everybody and everything they had lost.
Instead, Stilbo praised the gods because they had allowed him to survive, giving him the chance to live further. Thanks to his consistent thinking, he was able to enjoy the rest of his life.
Even if we lose everything, argued Seneca, we should still remain aligned with reality rather than give up and despair. Let us remember the example of Gaius Laelius Sapiens (188-129 BC), who after suffering some setbacks, opted for devoting the rest of his life to studying philosophy.
As a result, Sapiens enjoyed a quiet, but happy life. He had alighted his situation and attitude with the universal order. This means that he stopped worrying about little annoyances, risks, and negative elements in his surroundings.
Seneca recounts that, according to the tradition, the Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270 BC) had freed himself of stress by simplifying his life. Epicurus had decided to quit activities that required excessive effort, and led a consistently peaceful existence aligned with nature. The recipe, I think, could not be clearer.
If you are interested in putting rational ideas into practice in all sorts of situations, I recommend my book “Undisrupted: How highly effective people deal with disruptions.”
Related articles
Seneca’s errors about time management
Seneca’s advice on time management
Why Seneca’s anti-stress methods still work today