• • pain
  • a lack of control over environmental circumstances, such as food, housing, health, freedom
  • social issues such as social defeat, relationship conflict, deception, break-ups
  • major events such as birth, death, marriage, and divorce
  • life experiences such as poverty, unemployment, exams, deadlines

Why are these very common issues and experiences perceived by many as threats? If they are so common, why are we not appropriately prepared for them? Is our failure to cope with the most common issues not a result of the malfunction of those whose responsibility it is to prepare us for life? Have our parents, teachers, educators and counselors all failed us?

Epicurus, the founder of the Epicurean school of philosophy and happiness-boosting life conduct, suffered all his life from a bladder pain that finally killed him. This fact, however, did not interfere with his pursuit of happiness, even though they had no pain relief medicines in 271 BCE.

So what was Epicurus’s secret?  His “four-part cure,” in Greek “tetrapharmakos,” can give us a hint:

Don’t fear the gods,
Don’t worry about death;
What is good is easy to get, and
What is terrible is easy to endure

But his anti-stress medicine could not be swallowed at once with a glass of water. His followers had to chew and digest it over many years in their communal educative life-schools. The effort must have been worthwhile since the Epicurean circles of friends flourished over 800 years from 300 BCE till 500 CE.

So how was Epicurus’s stress-prevention program practiced?

The Epicureans did not give up their possessions as the Pythagoreans did, since that would have prevented them from generously sharing their resources with each other. They did not rebel against the state and its institutions, as the Cynics did, since they relied on the state to protect them in exchange for performing their duties as citizens. (Epicurus himself went to Athens for his two-year term of military service at the age of 18.) They did not plot against rulers or attempt revolutions, as the Platonists did, since they believed that the exercise of political power beyond the bounds of their own self-administrative communes endangered their peace of mind, necessary for a good life in freedom and happiness. For the same reason they did not participate in state affairs, as the Stoics did. They kept a low profile according to one of their principles: “lathe biosas,” in English,” live unobtrusively” or “unnoticed.”

This is what they did: The happiness-seekers lived together in communities where they could individually and collectively promote each others’ progress on their pathways from pain to pleasure. They studied intensively Epicurus’s therapeutical writings and memorized the most important precepts so they had them ready at hand the moment the specific philosophical-psychological pill was needed. They gave each other feedback on their progress and those who were more advanced helped the others in the way modern life-coaches and trainers do through lectures, discussions, conversations, and practical activities.

How  can an Epicurean lifestyle prevent each of life’s main “stressors”? Through the education and continuous practice of stress-busting, happiness-boosting attitudes towards all the issues related to pain, fear, frustration experienced today as social defeat, relationship conflict, deception, break-ups, births, deaths, divorce, poverty, unemployment, exams, and deadlines.

I will take up these issues individually and describe how Epicureans dealt with them over eight centuries and how we can deal with them today.

I define need as a condition requiring relief; anything that is necessary but lacking. To avoid stress and pain people must satisfy their needs. Fundamental needs are universal, that is, the same in all cultures throughout the ages. We all have the same fundamental needs for subsistence, protection, affection, understanding, participation, identity, freedom and transcendence.

Need-satisfiers may vary among cultures and times, but one aspect is universal: The way in which we satisfy our needs can boost or bust our happiness. Oxygen, nutrition, shelter, clothing and sleep are satisfiers of the fundamental need for subsistence. What kind of nutrition, shelter or clothing we use to satisfy our need for subsistence varies largely from culture to culture and from individual to individual.

We all need the six major classes of nutrients: carbohydrates, fats, minerals, protein, vitamins and water. What we eat, however, is largely determined by the perceived palatability of foods. A simple diet of water and bread, fruits and vegetables is easy and cheap to obtain. Stress results when we adopt ideas (prompted by our family, friends, authorities or the all-pervasive advertising industry) that only a certain kind of sweetened and carbonated beverage can quench our thirst or only expensive and sophisticated dishes satiate our hunger.

Working long hours and getting stressed by peers, supervisors and customers can be the result of a false belief in having to pay the mortgages for a house which is far bigger than needed for sheltering us from the frost or heat. And billions of dollars are made by another industry entirely based on our inappropriate estimation of our needs and our false belief that we may obtain happiness through status: the fashion industry.

Hundreds of scientific studies furnish thousands of proofs for the rightness of an ancient philosophical school whose members dedicated their lives to the pursuit of happiness: the happiness-school communities of the Epicureans that flourished for 800 years between 300 BC and 500 AD in the Greek-Roman world. Their recipe was simple: The good life is a simple life lead in the safe circle of like-minded friends, satisfying our natural needs in a simple and appropriate manner. Their pathway to happiness was to follow simple pleasures that cause no harm to themselves or others, carefully avoiding activities or even thoughts that might lead to pain or disturbance.

What they did to reach the state of simple happiness is something we all can do:

-          ask whether our fundamental need for subsistence is met by the appropriate satisfiers, i.e., whether we are overfed, overclad or overhoused

-          readjust the satisfiers to the need: Eat and drink simple food and beverages, wear simple clothes and live in houses that are not bigger and costlier than necessary.

The result will be an immediate and substantial decline of our stress level and at the same time an upsurge in our sense of control, stress-freedom and self-respect. In other words, an instant increase of our happiness.

Today scientific research endorses the tenets and the lifestyle of the ancient Epicurean happiness experts, and they can be safely copied for making individuals truly happy and saving our natural resources at the same time.

You can make a first step today on this ancient and proven pathway from pain to pleasure by aligning your need for subsistence with tried and true happiness-boosting satisfiers, like opting for appropriate housing, clothing and food. If you need support or additional resources for the next steps, just browse the Internet for the happiness-boosting Epicurean pathway from pain to pleasure, from stress to stress-freedom.

I read that the sales of  ”The Catcher in the Rye”  is soaring and I am wondering whether reading about  Holden Caulfield, Franny and Zooey will start a trend toward  self-inspection among today’s teenagers and youngsters, mostly busy with raising their status through the acquisition of gadgets.

Therefore I will just stick to my 2300 year old Epicurean principle: “mens sana in corpora sano”, i.e. to strive for “a healthy mind in a healthy body.”

As I have never taken vaccine against any kind of flu (that  kills about 10,000 people in Germany every year, i.e. roughly twice as many as killed in raod accidents) so far and I will not make an exception for the swine flu either. The statistics do not support any call for action that would justify the loss in MH-ROI (mental health return on investment): my peace of mind, tranquility, stress-FREEDOM, ataraxia.

The vaccine against the swine flu is expensive, it may have unpleasant or even dangerous side effects. The vaccine against the swine flu or any other panic  generated by the media industry  is cheap, pleasant and available for each and all: good, old, proven practical Epicurean philosophy.

My HappinessGuidance “From Pain to Pleasure: The Proven Pathway to Happiness” will take you on a journey like no other. It will grab your hand and won’t let go until you:

• discover the links between your desires, needs, attitudes and values
• see the incongruities in your daily life
• plan your individual pathway from pain to stress-FREEDOM
• achieve harmonious relationships with friends and family
• enjoy peace, tranquility and serenity
• achieve clarity about your future

UN Environment Program Director Achim Steiner said: Our system of transportation — in which everyone drives their own car — doesn’t fit the times we live in, and isn’t going to work in developing countries. The car, along with buses, trains and subways, is going to be just one part of a network of transportation systems.

You may read the whole article here: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,593680,00.html

Epicurus thought that it was more important whom you ate with than what you ate. Mutatis mutandis we could say that it is – well if not more, but at least just as important whom you travel with as where you travel to: travel companions head for the same destination, e.g. stress-FREEDOM. The most sustainable vehicle would be of course reflection and friendly discussions, using ecological enological fuels.

 http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,596705,00.html#ref=rss

PIED PIPER PROPOSAL

Berlin’s Poor Should Catch Rats, Says Politician

A Berlin politician has come under fire for suggesting that poor people should be encouraged to catch rats by offering them €1 per dead rodent. The intriguing idea entails some gnawing practical problems and has been called “inhuman and cynical”.

Picture the scene — hundreds of poor people armed with clubs chasing rats through the streets of Berlin.

There’s something Dickensian about the notion, but it has been proposed by a Berlin politician who is now being criticized for suggesting that the city’s poor should be enlisted to tackle the growing rat infestation in the center of the German capital.

———–

The proposition could be made Swiftian by requiring the poor not only to catch and kill the rodents but to cook and eat them as well. This version would have considerable

• economic effects: the food needs requirements of the poor would go down dramatically, saving the city council millions of euros
• ecologic effects: recycling of the rodents would shorten the food chain and lower the energy costs necessary for finding, transporting and preparing non-rodent food
• stress-FREEDOM effects: the rodent hunters and eaters would not have to worry about their next meal

For the above reasons we support the politician’s sagaciously modest  proposal and hope that other politicians and CEOs (especially of banks) will follow our advice in adopting the extended version.

 2,500 red haired people attended the Redhead Day in Breda, the Netherlands, on Sept. 7, 2008 The festival gathers natural redheads and their “non-redhaired partners, children and admirers” every year:.http://www.roodharigen.nl/ . The American http://realmofredheads.com/ counts almost  3000 members.

I wonder when will the stress-FREEDOM adepts be willing to come out of their Epicurean closets. After 800 years of flourishing (roughly from 300 BCE till 500 CE) they were forced to go underground, their clear ideas were partly stolen, distorted and ridiculed, and congruent practice of simple life forgotten.  

In the last 30 years there is a rising consciousness of sustainability issues and people might just discover that Epicurean simplicity might be the medicine for lots of physical and mental diseases caused by stress. Communication specialists will have to deliver the message backed by scientific research so that more and more people can realize that Epicurean simplicity can guarantee not only happiness for its practitioners but also sustainability for the globe.

Being a friend of wisdom – a practicing philosopher and active supporter of global sustainability – might just become presentable and even acceptable so that the seekers of stress-FREEDOM for themselves and for our planet can come out and come together!

As a starter, we might paint our hair green and organize a festival every year!