Seneca on dealing with criticism

Conflict is the one of main sources of preoccupations in life. Interpersonal conflicts tend to generate higher anxiety than natural disasters. Most people find daily quarrels with their spouses more nerve-wrecking than one-in-a-lifetime damages inflicted by a volcano. In his 78th Letter to Lucilius, #seneca studied negative emotions and provided useful recommendations. The validation of those strategies relies on historical anecdotes and Seneca’s own experience. Seneca concentrated on how to deal with negative criticism, which he viewed as a frequent cause of interpersonal conflict, but his recommendations also apply to combating other types of preoccupations. The key recipe given by Seneca is that, when confronted with negative criticism, we should emulate #socrates (469-399 BC), remain calm, ignore the insults and draw useful lessons if possible. Seneca is referring to an occasion when, in ancient Athens, Socrates was walking in the marketplace. He was surrounded by hundreds of people and many of them knew him personally. At that point, a man came up to Socrates and began to insult him vociferously. People around them stood still and looked at Socrates, wondering how he was going to react. Seneca recounts in his essay “On the #constancy of the Wise” that, against all expectations, Socrates did not react with rage. He remained calm because he was reflecting on whether he should feel affected by the event or not. That’s the essence of Seneca’s formula: think first and react later, once you have assessed the consequences; keeping a cool head can bring you inestimable advantages in life. When things fall apart and everybody is panicking, you will make better decisions if you stay calm. If you are being sternly criticised, it pays to postpone your reaction. Keep quiet, do not undertake any action until you have thought things through. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/seneca-on-dealing-with-negative-criticism/