The power of Stoicism: Expecting the worst-achieve the best!

Trust yourself to be fine in the end and you’ll let go of any reason to worry. Regardless of what comes up, you’ll figure it out. You always have.

If you are prepared for the worst, you will be prepared for anything, even for the best outcome.

"With positive thoughts and affirmations, everything around you will manifest positively." - this is an approach that has been propagated by the self-help industry for years as the

ultimate recipe for a successful life. However, it is known that each time is a witness to its philosophy. It has often transformed, denied, confirmed and eternally questioned in the human mind through a belief system.

The question now is whether the art of positive thinking has also rung out in the same way, together with the global pandemic, as the ultimate recipe for a successful life? Imagine the best possible outcome, think positively, visualize something beautiful and wait for it to manifest... But, what if not?

In fact, everything is far from perfect. The self-help industry trend convinces us that we can become successful and happy if we follow, or rather pay for, their advice. However, the reality is far from being able to become Bill Gates despite having a garage, software, and a few contacts. Statistics show that as many as 98 percent of registered business ideas fail from the start.

Futurorum malorum premeditatio – negative visualization

We should project our thoughts in advance and keep in mind every possible situation instead of the usual course of events.

The art of negative thoughts and visualizations that were practiced back in Stoicism. The so-called. ‘‘premeditation of evil, negative visualization or concentration on the worst possible outcomes (premeditation of adversity, lat. premeditatio malorum) leads us to imagine the worst outcome of an event and be at peace with it.

The Stoics threw themselves into the darkest and most desperate conditions in order to realize that they could endure it. With "visualization of the bad" they were prepared and had the mental strength needed to take a punch in the face and say: Yes, I can handle it.

Stoic authors weren’t out-of-this-world philosophers debating life’s meaning while high on a heroic dose of ancient mushrooms. They came from all walks of life – teachers and soldiers, poets and senators, slaves and emperors. Different backgrounds, one common trait: They were men and women of action.

As Lucius Annaeus Seneca would say, unexpected developments in a situation fall the hardest and most painful, which is why

a wise man thinks about them in advance. Thus, the unnoticeable, quiet, is much more powerful in its effect, because it is the unexpected that increases the very gravity of the disaster. It is impossible to prepare for or prevent something of which you are unaware. The Stoic does not see this act of negative visualization as pessimistic, but merely as a feature of his self-conscious optimism: "I am ready to face whatever happens and do now whatever is necessary to ensure that I do not waste energy on problems that could have been solved in advance."

Seneca, who lived during the time of Nero, believed that philosophy is there to keep you sane in times of trouble, and one of the best ways to do that is to overcome pessimism. He believed that optimism is responsible for our anger.

Why don't people get angry when it rains in the Netherlands? The reason is that they expect it to rain. Maybe we should take that approach to everything in life. Why do people get angry when they get stuck in traffic, even yelling at each other, blaming everyone around them for the situation they find themselves in? Why do they curse when they lose their keys? It's because they believe in a world where keys don't get lost and the roads are mysteriously empty - without traffic. Our expectations define what will make us angry, they define our reaction to a certain outcome. Guided by this, we tend to be surprised when things unexpectedly go the opposite of what we imagined or, say, when some person suddenly die.

Seneca thinks that everything is in the hands of the goddess of Fate, the icon of the woman who owns all our destinies. She was callous and cruel, deciding when someone would die, who would succeed, and who would fall into the depths of despair. She is a completely uncontrolled entity in all lives. Related to this topic, Seneca invited us to the , "TAO of Seneca" exercise called premeditation of the worst and advises us that every morning in bed, before we get up, we should replay the entire day ahead of us and imagine all the possible misfortunes that could befall us. Not necessarily because they could actually affect us, but as a protection against the course of events in which it would actually happen.

According to Seneca, anyone who has a child should accept that the child might be dead by the end of the day. Another interesting statement is that a person should swallow a toad every morning to ensure that nothing more disgusting will happen in the day ahead. The ancient recipe for giving in to anxiety and catastrophic thoughts reads: exile, torture, war, shipwreck. Updated in the present tense: your partner will leave you, your boss will fire you, your house will burn down, your plane will crash... You might even die! This may sound scary, but ancient philosophy says that it is important to keep the worst in mind. Imagine the worst possible scenario, become comfortable with it, you will realize that nothing terrible will happen, and you will achieve comfort with it. Being afraid of something will certainly make the situation worse. This way we will purify our thoughts. Repeat the exercise as many times as you can until you are at peace with the worst possible outcome.

When you conquer your fears, you will become unstoppable!

Stoicism has influenced and finds modern expression in the highly effective cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Its followers practice how they will react to these things as they arise. For example, the famous Stoic and Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius advises us to imagine all the mean, rude, selfish, and vulgar people we will encounter today. Then we program in our minds how we will react when we encounter them. We can disown their meanness, smile at their rudeness, and refuse to be involved in that which is degrading or below our standard. Thus prepared, we regain control over our reactions and behavior.

Catastrophizing as a Stress inoculation therapy (SIT), Seneca wrote that a soldier makes preparations in times of peace.

This is also true of the “premeditation of evil,” which we see as a military training ground. The agonizing cut of the unexpected is blunted by preparedness. We can prepare our minds for any temptation, in the same way that we prepare our

body for some endurance activities. The world can throw nothing worse at us than what our minds have already imagined.

Stoicism teaches us to accept our worrying mind, but to accept it as a kind of vaccination. Try spending five minutes of your day, say at breakfast, deliberately catastrophizing. Prepare your anxiety plan, and then face the world. Imagine the worst-case scenario that could develop from a particular event. For example, while training for a marathon, imagine the possibility that you might not finish it due to injury or exhaustion. If you are preparing for a presentation, imagine that the audience laughs at you and that you get a failing grade.

If you think that this way of thinking will make you depressed, that is far from the truth. Unlike a pessimist, you are not strictly convinced that things will go badly, but rather have an understanding that it is possible. Why is pessimistic thinking good? It reminds us that things do not always go according to plan. For example, if you wake up every morning thinking that your company is going to close, it is possible to take preventive measures to prevent this from happening. You can work harder than before, which will automatically lead to preventing short-term or long-term losses: visualize that something bad will happen in the future. In this way, predicting that outcome will leave less of an impact on us if it actually happens. This way, you will avoid shock! You will not collapse or become paralyzed if things go unexpectedly bad. Even if the worst happens, you will realize that life goes on. That is survival mode! Ask yourself, will you remember this in 20 years? Probably not. However, being able to cope with it will only benefit you in the long run. Everything happens for a reason, even though we cannot see that reason at a certain moment.

Gratitude is the ultimate recipe for your own peace

Another aspect of pessimistic thinking is related to gratitude. For example, we can look forward to a promotion or a new car and quickly get fed up with them when we get them. This is evident, for example, in people who win the lottery. First, they buy various things like expensive boats and houses ... In the end, their happiness is the same as before because their expectations have turned in a different direction. What they have is no longer enough.

However, we should keep in mind that someone's property can be taken at any time. It can be in the form of reputation, intangible or material. The thought that we can lose our job or apartment at any time reminds us to be grateful for everything we already have. The Greek philosopher Epictetus insinuates the idea that we should visualize that your children will not live to see the next day.

In this way, you will not delay for a second to tell them how much they mean to you.

We should also reflect on our own mortality and how our time on earth is not guaranteed. This way, we will not only be grateful for waking up in the morning, but it will also motivate us not to put off important things for the future because we don't know how much time we have left. Since we can't control the future, it will teach us to make the best of the present moment.

"I was complaining that I had no shoes till I met a man who had no feet" - Confucius.

"A pessimist is an optimist in full possession of the facts."

Disappointment, pain and suffering are some of the reasons why optimism is the worst way to live life. With positive expectations, we must know that bad things will happen much more often so it is wiser to expect the negative. Many people see pessimism as a defeated attitude.

However, it is more realistic. When happiness is not within expectations, you will not be so easily disappointed if something does not go as you planned. You will rather accept it as a fact.

Stoicism (from the Greek στωιϰός: stoic), a philosophical school from the Hellenistic era; along with skepticism and Epicureanism, the main philosophical trend in the so-called ethical period of Greek philosophy.

Wisdom is to overcome the external world over which man has no power. This can only be achieved within the individual. Therefore, we need to overcome and master the influence that the world has on us.

An individual cannot prevent fate from inflicting pleasures and pains on him, but he/she can, while enduring all the blows, preserve a proud self-consciousness by not considering pleasure as something good and pain as something evil.

(Aurora Weiss holds PhD in Phil. & Psy.)