Why You Should Never Borrow Unhappiness

“Some time around the year 64 AD, Seneca’s friend Lucilius sent him a letter. Lucilius was nervous about an ongoing lawsuit. We’re not sure what the suit was over, but we know that it was a serious case and that Lucilius had made himself anxious about the outcome and had written to Seneca for some advice.”Ryan explains why you should always be prepared for what could go wrong, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better. Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow Daily Stoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@daily_stoic See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom in everyday life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at DailyStoic.com.

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  Why you should never borrow unhappiness. Sometime around the year 64 A.D., Seneca's friends Lucilius sent him a letter. Lucilius was nervous about an ongoing lawsuit. "We're not sure what the suit was over, but we know that it was a serious case and that Lucilius made himself anxious about the outcome and had written to Seneca for some advice." What did he say? He said, "Why are you borrowing unhappiness? Why would you be miserable now just because you might be in the future?" Basically, Seneca told them, "What will happen will happen, so stop being anxious." And while this might sound like a strange thing to hear from Seneca, the creator of the premeditatio malorum exercise that we have talked about here so often,

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  it's stranger still considering that in the very same letter, Seneca tells Lucilius, "Let us think of everything that can happen as something which will happen." How does that work? Isn't that contradictory advice? Nope. The point of premeditatio malorum, negative visualization, is not to make you worry. It's to eliminate worry. By being aware of all the possibilities that lay before us, we can now proceed with our preparations. Who has time for anxiety? We should be fortifying ourselves for what may come. Why waste time preferring one outcome to another? We are ready for all of them equally. But what if the worst-case scenario happens? Okay, that won't be fun, so let's enjoy the present moment while we still can. Premeditatio malorum.

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  Whether you carry it in your pocket in the form of our medallion or you just run through it before embarking on a project or a journey or a long-distance flight is a form of freedom, a form of empowerment, a way to help you meet the future by seizing what's in front of you right now. So use it.

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  If you're looking for ways to keep these Stoic lessons with you, check out our Daily Stoic Stoic. These are all items that were designed to embody Stoicism, to help you carry the Stoic practice with you. We wanted to make things that we would actually use ourselves. That's why we don't make T-shirts, or stickers, or wristbands. We make things of super high quality that we stand behind, that we think are awesome, that embody Stoicism. We have our Memento Mori medallion, our Amor Fati medallion. We have prints with Marcus Aurelius quotes and so much more. You can check out dailystoic.com/store for more. Thanks for listening, and see you soon.