Category: Philosophy

Suppression

I felt a wonderful sense of relief and gladness the other day. It was so strong that it was almost alarming.

What I realized when this happened was that for the longest time, perhaps forever, I’ve kept my emotions so in check that it amounted to suppressing them constantly.

That raises the question to what extent one should restrain one’s emotion. Restraint means acting more rationally in the face of adversity, but it also means, to a certain extent, not really living.

So it is a dilemma. My constant suppression means that I have been able to navigate difficulties with rational reactions, but have I really lived? Not really.

Discipline

Epictetus

Epictetus, a former slave turned Stoic philosopher, came up with the key Stoic concept of focusing only on what one can control and ignoring anything beyond one’s control. You can see how someone who was a slave might become very familiar with the second half of this concept, as slave’s have little control over what befalls them.

Most people are very focused on the first part of this axiom — concentrate on what one can control. But the second part — ignoring what one cannot control — is also very liberating, for why waste any time on things one cannot even influence, and so much of modern life falls into this latter category. Best to just ignore such things entirely, although this can be difficult when they are threatening.

Discipline