[Practical Stoicism #20] Happy mindful and Stoic Saturday!
Happy Stoic Saturday!
This is the first Practical Stoicism newsletter on Saturday. From now on, I'll let you kickstart your weekend with a few Stoic thoughts. Coffee? Check. Articles bookmarked? Check. Open for new things? Check!
I promised not to theme the newsletters anymore, but I sense there is one in this newsletter. In preparation for university exams, I have been reading papers about mindfulness-based practices to reduce anxiety and depression.
Both Stoicism and Eastern philosophies have a lot to say about focusing on the present moment. Several psychotherapies have borrowed from philosophies to cultivate awareness of current thoughts and emotions, and as Stoics, we can learn from these psychological frameworks as they tend to be practical.
As I was reading papers about mindfulness, my availability bias kicked in, and I started to notice articles about Stoic mindfulness. One new writer who caught my eye is Linda Bebbington, a cognitive-behavioral therapist with a very accessible and engaging writing voice. I link to one of her articles later in the newsletter.
What returns is the exercise at the end of the newsletter. I'm building a new content section at Practical Stoicism with Stoic exercises. Before this section goes live, I will explore and share a practice in the newsletter every week. I've already received suggestions from readers, so hit the reply button and let me know in what areas you could use some help.
Enjoy!
Ramses
Wisdom around the web
Prosochē or not prosochē? On Stoic mindfulness
Another excellent article by Massimo Pigliucci.
Although we may want to see many similarities between Stoic and Buddhist mindfulness, there are significant differences. Stoic mindfulness would often better be named "Stoic attention." In Buddhist meditation, you are mostly to become aware of thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations without judging them. In Stoic meditation/attention, you are to become aware of unhelpful thoughts and feelings (sans the focus on bodily sensations), and you are to judge them as helpful or unhelpful.
However, we are free to incorporate practices from other philosophies when we notice they're helpful for us. Not everyone is a fan of sitting meditation—Ryan Holiday, for example, who prefers to journal. But when you do like the practice and find it benefits you, then you should incorporate it according to Massimo. However, it is good to be aware of the distinction between Stoic and Buddhist awareness meditation. When you know the differences, you can combine the best of both worlds.
Two quotes from the article that I liked:
"Yes, the Stoic practitioner is supposed to focus her attention on her own mental (but not physical, body-related) experiences, and to arrive at judgments about them. But this is done with the explicit goal of training oneself to alter one's natural judgments of what is good and what is bad, transferring those labels from externals (like health, education, wealth, etc.) to internals (i.e., one's own judgments, considered opinions, endorsed values, and decisions to act)."
"We are modern Stoics, we are inspired but not constrained by what the ancients wrote. Practicing the three disciplines of Epictetus with mindfulness is eminently reasonable and practical. So let's do it!"
Stoic Mindfulness—The Solution to Managing Your Emotions
"The problem is, this survival brain is also a trouble-seeking little time traveler. When we try to take risks, get happy, find love, change habits, or act within reason, auto-brain says, 'Woah…you can't do that. You got hurt before doing that' …or 'Hey, you can't risk that, because what if the sky falls down?'"
The brain as a trouble-seeking time traveler, I love that!
Only in the present moment can we grow, but how do we stay present? Linda goes on to explain how we can train our "auto-brain" to not go along with every story:
"If we can begin having moments in our day where we snap out of auto-pilot and become the observer of our mental functioning, then we are no longer blindly following the old, embedded stories. Instead, we become witness to them."
Linda ends her article with three practical ways to train your awareness through everyday activities.
Podcast recommendation: The Stoic Psychology Podcast
As I'm a psychologist in training, this new(ish) podcast caught my eye. The host is Alex MacLellan, a practicing therapist from the UK. Each episode, he takes a look at a Stoic principle and explains how it fits in with modern psychological insights. I recommend starting with episode one, but I enjoyed listening to episode three this week:
Episode 3: Wanting and Desiring
In this episode, Alex covers the Stoic discipline of desire and how desiring is often a craving for status. He then proposes a few thought experiments, like imagining you're the only person left on earth and how useless most of your possessions would be. He then goes on to explain how we can value what we have right now.
Exercise: Get To The Heart Of The Real Thing
I'm increasingly a fan of the website What Is Stoicism? The anonymous author seems to grasp Stoic philosophy well and has a very engaging and to-the-point way of writing. This exercise is a variation of the stripping method I outlined in my article on Stoic wisdom and gives some suggestions to see objects in a different light.
Exercise: Mindful breathing
For one of my psychology classes, I had to research Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR); therapy mostly used with people with PTSD. I found it interesting to read that EMDR has very similar effects to Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in reducing emotions and the vividness associated with traumatic experiences. Most of us have traumatic experiences in our lives, and psychological exercises can help us healthily process these. However, EMDR should be done together with a professional, so what are the ways we can achieve the same result on our own?
The research that caught my attention was this paper titled How does EMDR work? by Marcel A. van den Hout and Iris M. Engelhard from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. One of the sections (Mindfulness and Mindful Breathing) touches on Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MCBT) and how mindful breathing has similar effects EMDR has. That means that through mindfulness meditation, it's possible to reduce negative emotions and bodily sensations.
How does mindful breathing work? It's very similar to sitting meditation and can be as short as 30 seconds (but aim for 5 minutes at the time):
Sit upright in a chair, with your back straight, hands loosely on your legs, and your feet grounded on the floor—you can close your eyes or keep them open, whatever you prefer;
Inhale slowly, and feel your belly expand;
Exhale slowly, and feel your belly flatten;
Keep breathing slowly;
Notice when you are distracted. By what are you distracted? Thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations? Acknowledge whatever you notice, and return your attention to your breath.