This quote comes from a stoic philospher Seneca who indeed was a wealthy man. But another stoic philospher Epictetus was a slave and still had the same thinking.
“Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of things.”
I can't really explain Stoicism properly in just a comment - and honestly, most of those out-of-context quotes you see online make it seem like generic motivational BS, which totally misses the point. The text are supposed to be read in context to understand them.
Here's a simple example: say you want to ask someone out. Stoicism would tell you to focus on what you can control - your approach, your words, being genuine. But stressing about whether they'll say yes? That's pointless because it's not up to you.
It's not about being optimistic or delusional. It's actually the opposite - it's about seeing reality clearly. The real suffering comes from overthinking and catastrophizing. Like turning potential rejection into this massive tragedy in your head when it's really just... rejection. In this case you can suffering from deluding yourself.
The philosophy is really about recognizing that most of our suffering comes from our thoughts about events, not the events themselves. Obviously stoicism has its own shortcomings and the philosophers themselves are flawed people just like you and me.
If you're curious but don't want to read, Einzelgänger has some solid videos on it.
Yet my imagination provides a predictable scenario in which if I fail in this reality, at this moment of my life, the most likely thing to happen next is a catastrophe come true.
So it's not about disregarding our concerns, but acting upon them. If I don't prepare for the future, I'm left with nothing but suffering in the long run.
The thing is... I'm clouded too frequently by my worries. I'm ridden with anxiety. Up to the point I get physically frozen & mentally stuck. I advance at tortoise speed & won't get to study in time for exams... So... It's not as easy as deluding myself as this quote says. And the pain of studying is real too. Literally, neurons stretching each other to make a connection. If that doesn't hurt, plus the pain of being behind of everyone else... I don't know which cognitive action one should take to re-train ourselves to make it easier and suffer less.
I'm sorry for sharing my burden to you, in the form of a comment. If you've got a tip to share, it'd be cool tho.
(I'm just coping with my situation by sharing stuff, kinda like what old people do when they've got nobody to talk to XD)
Lol I was a bad at studying too. I went from 55% in 11th to 95% in 12th. The only tip I have got for you is simply study more by removing useless things from schedule that takes your memory space of your brain. Also give many mock tests before any exam. Obviously there are some impulses you cannot just control instantly. Instead you should focus on what you can control.
For example: You cannot just wake up at 5 am if you are someone who wakes up at 9 am through sheer will power. But what you can do is sleep earlier, turn off your screen before heading to bed, make sure you dont use your bed on daytime so your body recognises when it's sleep time, drink water so you will have to pee in morning and keep your phone away so you will have to walk to turn off the alarm.
Similarly you cannot do anything about the procrastinating zombie. But when you are conscious, Use all of your efforts to make progress before the zombie comes back.
Thank you so, so, so much. I'll give it a try. I've been doing the absolute contrary so far. I went to sleep late (1am), woke up kinda late (9am work part time) & at afternoon I "studied", but tired. So i just stared at the screen or went straight to my phone & played Brawl Stars or read manhwa.
I can sleep early at 10/11pm & wake up early at 7am, and use those 2 hours to study... but I'm afraid of letting the existential thoughts creep in so I kind of numb myself down and wake up exactly just for work.
Tbh I'm scared of not being productive aka "not remembering stuff" or just burning myself out during those early hours for "nothing". Maybe instead of studying I should go for a run & keep the study to the afternoon/night time.
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u/Night2015 6d ago
HA! Says someone from a privileged reality.