Anxiety and Control
This week you'll work through one of the most practical questions in Stoic thought: where does anxiety actually come from, and what, precisely, can you do about it? The seven passages move you from the foundational distinction between what is and isn't yours to control, through a direct challenge to anxiety's logic, and finally to a quiet, personal commitment about how you'll meet the world. Each day builds on the last, so try not to skip ahead.
Passage
SOME THINGS are under our control, while others are not under our control. Under our control are conception, choice, desire, aversion, and, in a word, everything that is our own doing; not under our control are our body, our property, reputation, office, and, in a word, everything that is not our own doing. Furthermore, the things under our control are by nature free, unhindered, and unimpeded; while the things not under our control are weak, servile, subject to hindrance, and not our own. Remember, therefore, that if what is naturally slavish you think to be free, and what is not your own to be your own, you will be hampered, will grieve, will be in turmoil, and will blame both gods and men; while if you think only what is your own to be your own, and what is not your own to be, as it really is, not your own, then no one will ever be able to exert compulsion upon you, no one will hinder you, you will blame no one, will find fault with no one, will do absolutely nothing against your will, you will have no personal enemy, no one will harm you, for neither is there any harm that can touch you. With such high aims, therefore, remember that you must bestir yourself with no slight effort to lay hold of them, but you will have to give up some things entirely, and defer others for the time being. But if you wish for these things also, and at the same time for both office and wealth, it may be that you will not get even these latter, because you aim also at the former, and certainly you will fail to get the former, which alone bring freedom and happiness. Make it, therefore, your study at the very outset to say to every harsh external impression, “You are an external impression and not at all what you appear to be.” After that examine it and test it by these rules which you have, the first and most important of which is this: Whether the impression has to do with the things which are under our control, or with those which are not under our control; and, if it has to do with some one of the things not under our control, have ready to hand the answer, “It is nothing to me.”
— Epictetus, Handbook 1
Reflection
The Handbook sharpens Sunday's distinction into a diagnostic tool. Epictetus says that turmoil, grief, and blame are not unfortunate side effects of a hard life; they are the direct, predictable result of misclassifying what belongs to you. When you treat your reputation or your body as your own, you hand other people and events the power to compel you. Today's passage gives you a first-response practice: when a harsh impression arrives, pause and say aloud, 'You are an external impression and not at all what you appear to be,' then run the test.
Go deeper
Think of a recent moment when you felt compelled, pressured, or backed into a corner; which thing that is 'not your own' were you treating as your own in that moment?
Practice
The Impression Test
Set a timer for 10 minutes and recall one anxious thought that visited you in the last 24 hours. Write it down exactly as it appeared. Then apply Epictetus's test in writing: Is this impression about something under my control, or not? If it concerns something not under your control, write the words 'It is nothing to me' beneath it and explain, in one or two sentences, why that is literally true in this case.