An Even Mind
This week's concept is "equanimity," a word that comes from the Latin aequanimitas, meaning literally "an even mind." It is the trained capacity to meet whatever comes, good or bad, without being thrown off balance. Not numbness, not forced positivity, but a steady inner ground that Fortune cannot reach. Over the next seven days you will learn what equanimity actually is, why the Stoics thought it was achievable through practice rather than luck, and how to start building it into the texture of your ordinary days.
Passage
How, then, shall we avoid this vacillation? In one way only,—if there be no reaching forward in our life, if it is withdrawn into itself. For he only is anxious about the future, to whom the present is unprofitable. But when I have paid my soul its due, when a soundly-balanced mind knows that a day differs not a whit from eternity—whatever days or problems the future may bring—then the soul looks forth from lofty heights and laughs heartily to itself when it thinks upon the ceaseless succession of the ages. For what disturbance can result from the changes and the instability of Chance, if you are sure in the face of that which is unsure?
— Seneca, Letters 101.9
Reflection
Today Seneca locates the source of mental unsteadiness: it comes from reaching forward, from living in a future that has not arrived yet. The even mind is not spread thin across time; it is gathered into the present. He says 'a soundly-balanced mind knows that a day differs not a whit from eternity,' meaning each day is complete in itself, not merely a corridor to somewhere else. When you are genuinely present, the 'ceaseless succession of ages' Seneca describes loses its power to frighten you. Equanimity is partly a time discipline: it is the practice of not borrowing trouble from a future you do not yet possess.
Go deeper
What is one worry you are currently carrying about something that has not happened yet, and what would it cost you to set it down just for today?
Practice
The Present Audit
Set a timer for five minutes. Write down every worry currently occupying mental space. Next to each one, write either 'now' (it is actually happening right now) or 'not yet' (it is a projection). For the 'not yet' items, write one sentence about what is actually available to you in the present moment instead.