“There are more things … likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca is one of the most discussed Stoics.
His most famous works include Letters from a Stoic and On the Shortness of Life, and they are studied by many philosophers and stoic practitioners.
And if any of the Stoics should get a pass for getting stressed out, it should be Seneca.
Why? Because this man faced a lot throughout his life. But despite the many terrible things he experienced, he remained mindful, and focused on the positives and on what he could control.
Why Seneca Would Stress Out
Ever since he was a young boy, Seneca has had to deal with ailments. He dealt with an illness that caused him to have trouble breathing (believed to be asthma) and later on in his life, contracted tuberculosis.
Additionally, he was a tutor and eventually an advisor to Nero, a tyrannical and self-indulgent Roman emperor. And despite having a positive impact on the emperor early on, Seneca’s good influence eventually dwindled and Nero was corrupted by power and ego.
Surely, Seneca should’ve been stressed out that his student replaced all of his teachings for the exact opposite of what he taught.
But he didn’t. He kept focus on what he could control and that was the continuation of his advising and teaching on the ways of a stoic.
However, it wasn’t effective. After many years of friendship and guidance, Nero got fed up and accused Seneca of conspiring against him and ordered his former tutor to commit suicide as a punishment.
Seneca didn’t fight the order or stress about it. He calmly accepted his fate and took his own life.
How Seneca Dealt With Stress and Anxiety
So, how was Seneca so strong?
Seneca was able to handle all of the bad things he faced because he practiced voluntary suffering (or what psychologists today call exposure therapy), where he would, for some time, sleep on the ground and eat bad food. He also took cold baths in rivers and lakes regularly.
“A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.”
He also used laughter as a cure for stress and anxiety.
“He who laughs has joy. The very soul must be happy and confident, lifted above every circumstance.”
Additionally, Seneca believed a lot of the fear that causes stress and anxiety is imagined.
Therefore, he never focused on them. Rather, he focused on the present moment and the task-at-hand, and tried to figure out solutions instead of occupying his mind with made-up fears and worries.
“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing.”
In Letters from a Stoic, Seneca gives this same advice to his friend, Lucilius.
“What I advise you to do is, not to be unhappy before the crisis comes; since it may be that the dangers before which you paled as if they were threatening you, will never come upon you; they certainly have not yet come.
“Accordingly, some things torment us more than they ought; some torment us before they ought; and some torment us when they ought not to torment us at all. We are in the habit of exaggerating, or imagining, or anticipating, sorrow.”
Final Thoughts
And this is how Seneca overcame stress and anxiety, and how you could too.
All you have to do is study his teachings and apply them. And put yourself through voluntary suffering once in a while.