Stoicism for Mental Health

Our world is changing and developing day by day. As it changes, people’s lives become more complicated. The people who are crushed under heavy workload, daily life stress and anxiety, and the uncertainty of modern cities try to find a way to cope with all those negative feelings. In these circumstances, some people can turn towards religion, meditation, and so forth. Stoicism is one of the ideas that people who feel stressed can be
interested in. Stoicism is a philosophical idea that aims to make people more virtuous and wiser; as a result, this idea’s purpose is to raise better parents, better professionals, and a better society. Stoicism offers thoughts and messages for mental resilience and finds common ground with modern psychology.

‘Stoicism’’ is named after the porch (stoa poikilê) in the Agora at Athens, where the first Stoics were taught philosophy. For the Stoic type of happiness, virtue is essential and sufficient; also, indifference against poverty and wealth, health and disease, and death and
life can be considered one of the characteristics of Stoic thought. They train themselves to accept life’s consequences, which they cannot change. Stoics believe that they only have virtue, and they cannot own other things. If something slips from their hands, it is because it was never theirs, whether it be their wife, their child, or even their health.

Stoicism teaches people coping with anxiety and stress. Before an important event, exam, or meeting, all of us feel kind of nervous; sometimes this tension impacts our daily routine, such as eating habits or sleeping schedule. In Stoic thinking, we need to consider what the worst that could happen is, then we have to decide the probability of this happening and how we can prevent it. If the changing power is in our hands, that’s perfect; we can do our best and accept the consequences, whatever they are, but if the situation is beyond our control, again, we have to accept consequences without any complaint. The main key is the
sentence “Let it happen.”

Accepting difficulties as opportunities for growth is another teaching from Stoicism. Life tests people with various situations; from time to time, taking these hard times becomes uneasy. Stoics suggest how we see the complications affects how we respond and how we feel. If you face the death of your loved one, then life tries to teach you that you do not own them. If you face poverty, then life tries to teach you to empathize with those lower than you. Facing poverty and hardship, not bragging, not condemning people, and not boasting about money are features of real Stoics.

Virtue is the most important idea in Stoicism. A person cannot control even his closest possessions, such as his money, family, health, and all the otherworldly wealth that he thinks are his own, because they can be given to him for a teaching, and also they can be taken away for another teaching. People who boast about worldly goods are nothing but an empty tin; real wealth is being humble and beneficial to others, working fairly, and being grateful for
life & its blessings.

Stoicism is one of the useful ways to cope with anxiety and stress in the modern world. It trains people to live a fair and carefree life with the teachings about accepting life as it is. If one has the power to change something, he/she has already done it, but if a person does not have a chance to do it, then let it be. Situations either give you a reward or a
teaching, but in both ways you will profit.