Worry is the quintessential wasteful emotion. It doesn’t help improve our life, but consumes large amounts of energy. The more we worry, the less time we have available for productive, constructive action.
Seneca had endured worry and anxiety in his mid-twenties, due to a severe respiratory illness. He thought he was going to die, when he had barely started to live. Decades later, when looking back at that period, he had drawn crucial philosophical lessons.
I regard the 107th Letter to Lucilius as a summary of sound principles for dealing with worry, anxiety and similar negative emotions. The first step is to become conscious of the fact that those feelings are a complete waste of time.
“A normal human lifespan should suffice us as long as we do not waste time,” reasoned Seneca. “If we work assiduously towards our goals,” he observed, “we can achieve a great deal.”
I want to emphasise the importance of this principle, which constitutes a prerequisite for further self-improvement. People who regard worry and anxiety as useful, are unlikely to remedy them.
Seneca: worry is essentially a waste of time
Their naivete reminds me of an ancient fable about a bird that befriends a snake, only to be betrayed and eaten alive. The bird complains that the snake has betrayed their friendship, but the snake replies that “I’m snake and I must behave like one.”
It was foolish for the bird to think that a snake could change its nature. Similarly, it is foolish for people to view their worry and anxiety as favourable or productive.
Seneca lamented that humans will waste enormous amounts of time on worthless activities. His recipe was straightforward. Effective living and emotional health revolve around “focusing our attention on the present.”
In the 107th Letter to Lucilius, Seneca advised us to consider each day as a self-contained unity. He employed the words “to regard each day as a separate life.” He meant that the sheer fact of using today’s hours well should put us in a positive mood.
Seneca recommended the daily practice of virtue because it is the best way to live. By doing today what needs to be done, we are establishing a solid basis for tomorrow’s happiness. It is better to get today’s work done one hundred per cent than waste our time worrying about potential setbacks.
I must hasten to add that Seneca was not advising people to live blindly, without making plans for the future. That wouldn’t solve any problem. Insouciance is impractical and dangerous.
Seneca: the need to strike a fair balance
For Seneca, effective living is about striking a fair balance between today and tomorrow. It’s great to have goals, provided that we do not obsess about them. It is laudable to pursue large goals, provided that we focus on completing today’s steps.
Seneca rightly criticised people “who worry too much about the length of their life” because excessive preoccupation won’t contribute to their happiness. Worry and anxiety arise when we lose our sense of proportion, magnify the future, and fail to do what needs to be done in the present.
The bird in the fable should have stayed alert and focused instead of befriending the snake. Lack of thoughtfulness leads to dangerous errors. At a certain point, the victim will lose all sense of proportion, and become incapable of differentiating a friend from an enemy.
Seneca’s solution to worry is to “focus on living” instead of agonising about potential future disasters. The more we worry about the future, the less energy we will have left for getting things done today.
History shows that practical-minded people tend to do great over time. The reason isn’t hard to fathom. They simply devote their efforts to the tasks at hand, and let the future take care of itself.
Instead of wasting time “meditating on mortality,” Seneca is encouraging us to “focus on living well.” Worry is the outcome of devoting too much thought to potential risks, and doing too little to counter them.
Seneca: focus on enjoyment, not on deficiencies
Seneca makes similar recommendations in his 79th Letter to Lucilius. He calls for “enjoying what we possess” instead of “complaining about what we lack.” If we do the former, we’ll seize every opportunity for happiness. If we do the latter, we’ll waste our time and ruin our mood.
Stoic philosophers view worry as a symptom of inadequate perspective. People get lost in speculations about disasters that, in reality, are unlikely to happen. Or they feel deficient because they are missing some item that they do not really mean.
In the 79th Letter to Lucilius, Seneca characterises wisdom as the ability to content oneself with the essentials. From this Letter, I conclude that it is wise to feast on simple food and that this habit can help us enjoy life to the maximum.
Equanimity, not passivity, is the opposite of worry, explains Seneca. Let’s not imitate fools that close their eyes to the future and cause their own demise, nor weaklings that are so afraid of storms that they never wander outside their homes.
Neither Plato (427-347 BC) nor Aristotle (384-322 BC) had devoted as much time as Seneca to understanding worry. Let’s heed Seneca’s advice on this matter because it encapsulates the wisdom drawn from a lifetime of trial and error.
If you are interested in putting rational ideas into practice in all kinds of situations, I recommend my book “The Philosophy of Builders.”
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