MindThe Beginner

This blogpost is part four in a series of five exploring the Stoic psychological tactics that can be used to rediscover joy in your life and is based on William Irvine’s A guide to the good life.

This tactic takes the negative visualisation a step further. Not only do we contemplate what the worst thing is that can happen, we act as if it really has. Fake anything from oversleeping to a total blackout or a breakdown of your car. You might want to act as if you have only a few dollars left this month to spend on food and have to make due with the mere basics of bread and water.

The seemingly strange

A while ago author Neil Strauss (Emergency) did just that. For three full days he shut off all power and water in his home. He did this to see if all his preparations for such events were in order and to practice his skills in a real environment but still with some control. He could after all get the water and power back if things really went wrong.

But why in -insert your deity’s name here- name would you want to do that when you have all the comfort you need and see no use in turning off the air conditioning in the middle of a hot summer. We work hard to obtain all kinds of comforts we believe we need to survive but the truth is we can life perfectly without a lot of these comforts but we don’t know what they are until we go without them for a while.

Again (just like running) this is a form of self torture. A form that will help us in more ways that one. First off it will show us that we can easily do without most things we believe we need to survive and secondly it prepares us for the event that things do really go wrong. (Or WTSHTF as Neil puts it in the most extreme of situations.)

Instead of standing there dumbfounded when our car won’t start we know where the nearest bus-stop is and waste no time in executing the alternative. No more Internet? We pick up that book we have planning to read. No stress, no discomfort, only a change of plan but not one we can’t handle. It won’t jeopardise our joy in life.

Voluntary discomfort or self-inflicted discomfort

The Stoics didn’t inflicting discomfort on themselves, they didn’t do something they didn’t want to. They chose to do this and so it was voluntary, a huge difference. In modern days however, why would you want to do without all the comforts that are so easily accessible. (TV, Internet, hot water or even running water for that matter)

There are three advantages of practicing voluntary discomfort:

• Hardening yourself
• By living through minor discomforts regularly you’ll grow more confident that you can cope with major discomforts as well. Such a major future event will no longer be a source of anxiety.
• It helps us appreciate what we have and stops us from taking things for granted.

Even though we do our best we can’t ban discomfort out of our lives completely. Discomfort is something we sometimes just don’t have control over and it would be a waste of time (and thus productivity) by concerning ourselves with this discomfort. We’ll just have to live with it and in getting used to some discomfort it no longer affects s that much. Very cold temperatures don’t bother the Inuit that much, they’re used to it.

Getting back control

From time to time try and abstain from harmless pleasures. Don’t drink that cold beer on a warm sunny day. It’s not because you might become an alcoholic. It’s because you can practice self control. The easiest things at first (don’t eat that cookie) and the things that you find harder later until you are no longer a slave to pleasure anymore and can turn down anything offered to us.

Make sure you regularly prove you can abstain from pleasure by actually saying no to the pleasure. This is the difference between those why say they can (Know any smokers who claim they can stop at any time but just don’t because they don’t feel like it right now?) and those who truely are their own master and not a slave to pleasure.

As the Stoics went about their daily lives they subjected themselves to discomfort and abstained from things that would provide comfort from time to time. It was perfectly okay to enjoy yourself and to experience all the comforts the world has to offer but there is a fine line between a good meal and gluttony.

The posts in the Stoic psychological tactics series:

1. Negative Visualisation

2. The Dichotomy of control

3. Fatalism

4. Self-Denial

5. Meditation