Seneca’s key insight for overcoming stress

I have often observed that insouciant people seldom suffer from worry. They go about their business without thinking long of the consequences, accept setbacks philosophically, and keep trudging ahead despite criticism and opposition. #seneca did not regard insouciance as a valid philosophical stance because it reduces humans to a perceptual level. It makes humans prone to accidents of all sorts because they have not taken basic precautions. Dogs and cats do not worry about the future because they lack the intellectual capacity to think long term, but who wants to expose himself to unnecessary risks? Who wants to live like a dog or cat, vulnerable to changes in circumstances? Who wants to be unable to make #meaningful progress? Don’t we all want to improve our lives and build a better future for ourselves? Insouciance does not work for humans even if it’s portrayed as a winning strategy in some fictional stories. In reality, our success depends on our willingness to think and act rationally. In his 13th Letter to Lucilius, Seneca underlined that human rationality goes hand in hand with human morality. If we think, we must pass judgement, and if we pass judgement, we cannot regard evil behaviour as acceptable. #consistency is the key to reducing #fear and anxiety, argued Seneca, in the sense that it enables us to align our actions with the universe. It helps us make decisions according to orderly, #universal principles. The 11th Letter to Lucilius praises natural #ethical reactions. I am referring for instance to blushing. When someone feels that he has done something wrong, there is the tendency to blush in public because he realises that other people are going to pass a negative judgement on him. Seneca considered those physical reactions as genuine and moral, and drew on support from #socrates (470-399 BC) and Cato the Younger (95-46 BC), who had held similar views. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/senecas-key-insight-for-overcoming-stress/