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Mar 18, 2018
"The greatest peril of misplaced worry is that in keeping us constantly tensed against an imagined catastrophe, it prevents us from fully living. " --Seneca
Seneca on the Antidote to Anxiety
With elegant rhetoric the great first-century Roman philosopher Seneca examines worry, both real and imaginary, and the mental discipline of overcoming fear. In Letters from a Stoic, he points out to a young friend that, "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."
BE THE CHANGE
How often do you foresee and fear darker outcomes when a more positive attitude could possibly influence the future event? Seneca reminds us of the self-defeating and wearying human habit of bracing ourselves for an imaginary disaster that may never happen.
