The following content is from chapter 13 of 30 Philosophers.
Perhaps Zeno’s principle that captured the stoic stereotype best is emotional resilience. Stoicism teaches that you must accept the circumstances of your life, even while attempting to better it. Rather than throwing a pity party when something bad happens, you accept it, 100%, and just move forward. You don’t resign yourself to fate, you simply focus on what is within your control. By embracing the reality of your situation and recognizing the limits of your influence, you can get the most out of life.
When something bad happens in life…if you give up and throw yourself a pity party, you’ve already lost. If you do something, anything, then at least you have a chance. What Zeno noticed is that people who marched forward in the face of life’s challenges did better. Not just in the game of life, but for themselves. They actually felt better, and he wanted to cultivate that ability and maximize it.
Emotional resilience is about recognizing that inflection point. It’s about maximizing whatever opportunities are in front of you, and reframing challenges, so you can navigate them with inner peace.
Epictetus, paraphrased from his “Handbook” compiled by a student in Greek around 108 CE, wrote:
“People are disturbed not by the things that happen, but by their opinions about the things that happen.”
The phrase “fake it, until you make it,” suggests that if you want to be in a good mood, begin by attempting to be in a good mood. Conversely, when you start to feel sorry for yourself, it’s possible to spiral. The term “spiraling” is often used to describe an emotional downward spiral. Emotional resilience is the idea that you catch that spiraling, stop it, and turn it around.
For more, read chapter 13 of 30 Philosophers.
