Proven Ancient Prevention against Modern Life’s “Stressors”
Stress is the consequence of the failure of an organism to respond appropriately to emotional or physical threats, whether actual or imagined. The most common “stressors” include:
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- 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.
What is a “stressor” for Epicureans?
The Holmes and Rahe stress scale is a list of 43 stressful life events that can contribute to illness. Births and deaths, marriage and divorce are listed as “stressors”. Epicureans, ancient or modern, would disallow this term, arguing that “there is no such a thing as a ‘stressor’ but only inadequate preparation.”
I have written an article on this issue entitled: ‘Proven Ancient Prevention against Modern Life’s “Stressors”’ and submitted it to ezinearticles.com
stress prevention through appropriate preparation
There are hundreds of thousands of tips, suggestions, courses and books on stress-management on the internet but only a very few remind us of a proven method of stress-prevention used for at least 2300 years: appropriate preparation.
Facilitating workshops on negotiation techniques I have seen hundreds of time how nervous and stressed were those who did not prepare thoroughly. As a student I was very calm if I was prepared for an exam – which in fact was seldom the case.
Life’s top ten “stressors”
- Death of spouse
- Divorce
- Marital separation; marital reconciliation
- Death of close family member
- Changing residences
- Personal injury or illness
- Marriage
- Loss of job
- Change in financial state
- Prison
need not stress us at all if we are adequately prepared .
Who can prepare us for these events? Our schools do not do this at all, our families very seldom. Two philosophical schools, both about 2300 years old, were created just for furnishing the appropriate tools with which they prepared their adepts to face life’s top and bottom “stressors” and yet stay stress-free.
I mean the Stoics and the Epicureans. Their goals and followers were rather different but the tools and methods they used were rather similar – and most of them are just as valid today as they were 2300 years ago.
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