Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (4 BC-AD 65), typically known today as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, and a dramatist from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature. While the Stoic school began in Athens, Greece, roughly three hundred years before Seneca was born, the writings of the Greek Stoics are mostly lost to us today.
This makes Seneca the first major Stoic writer whose philosophical works have come down to us over two thousand years later in a nearly complete form. Of particular note, his writing feels particularly modern, which contributes greatly to its usefulness when relating to the problems of everyday life.
Why People Worry
Foresight, our inner way of imagining and planning for the future, is one of the most amazing abilities a human being has. Although, there is little worse than “worrying” about the future, thus, turning the blessing of foresight into a source of anxiety.
“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.” - Seneca, Letters 13.4
As a student of human nature, Seneca saw that human beings have powerful imaginations that shape the kinds of feelings and mental judgements we can make. Once foresight becomes misused this way, it can create fear, worry, and anxiety, which is much different than having a legitimate and rational concern.
For many, most sources of anxiety are about things that could happen in the future.
“Do you want to know why people are greedy for the future? It’s because no one has yet found himself.” - Seneca, Letters 32.4
For Seneca, fear is a form of slavery. Worrying about the future, or having regrets about the past, is an entirely psychological phenomenon in which people indulge their negative emotions.
The only way to avoid this is not to “reach forward” mentally but to live in the present moment, and to realize that the present moment is complete and perfect just as it is. As Seneca often reflects back to, you can only be anxious about the future if you view the present moment as unfulfilling.
How To Overcome Worry
For a Stoic like Seneca, it is reasonable to be concerned about future events but it is a mistake to worry about something in advance that may not even happen. One of the most effective ways to begin reducing worry is simply to monitor your inner judgements and the emotions they give rise to as the process begins to unfold. The Stoic refers to this at “attention.”
“My advice to you is this: Don’t be miserable ahead of time. Those things you fear, as if they were near at hand, might never arrive. Certainly, they haven’t arrived yet.” - Seneca, Letters 13.4
Second, Seneca advises to wisely analyze patterns of thinking in order to understand the source of the suffering. For if anxiety arises from faulty beliefs, by rationally analyzing those beliefs and studying them, we can also mitigate our distress.
“We agree with opinion to quickly. We don’t test those thoughts that lead us to fear, or question them with care….So let’s examine things carefully.” - Seneca, Letters 13.8-9
Ultimately, while the Stoics did not believe in real misfortunes, they did not discount the fact how events can feel like misfortunes through the judgements we make or the opinions we hold as it is just not possible to avoid the emotional shock of some events.
Those reactions are natural and not based on opinions, but even is such cases, it’s possible to reduce the psychological impact and keep those emotional shocks from spiraling out of control.
For example, Seneca noted how many people have an irrational fear of death, even though death is a normal part of life’s journey. Epictetus, a later Stoic, clarifies this point -
“It is not things themselves that disturb people, but people’s opinions about things. Death, for example, is nothing frightening, or Socrates would have thought so too. The fear arises from the opinion that death is frightening. So whenever we feel frustrated, disturbed, or upset, we should never blame anyone else, only ourselves - that is to say, our own opinions.”
- Epictetus, Enchiridion 5
Thank you for reading!
References -
Breakfast with Seneca (Fideler, D.)
Letters on Ethics: To Lucilius (The Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca)