Seneca Letter 13 – The Cure To Fear
Seneca Letter 13 to Lucilius ‘On Groundless Fears’ deals with one of the most insidious human emotions: fear.
“There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
— Seneca
The human mind has been endowed with amazing faculties.
Imagination is one of our greatest gifts.
It’s allowed us to create amazing technologies and uncover the hidden laws of the universe.
The same gift is simultaneously a curse; we spend too much time envisioning a terrifying future.
Predicting the future is often impossible.
Why?
Because our world is a complex assembly of systems, feedback loops and a large range of unknown variables.
Even the best AI won’t be able to tell you what will happen tomorrow.
Most of your mortal attempts will be wrong.
It takes only one small event to change the timeline.
“Sometimes the sword has been checked even at the victim’s throat. Men have survived their own executioners. Even bad fortune is fickle.”
The mind tends to polarize itself towards negative imagery.
Negative emotions are that of survival and stickier than positive emotions.
Gloom will reign over your mind with a tighter grip than optimism.
Our vigilant and paranoid ancestors likely survived longer than the ones who peacefully meditated under a tree.
This survival mechanism however can go haywire.
It might occasionally save us from dangerous situations, but it will deprive us of our happiness.
“We are in the habit of exaggerating, or imagining, or anticipating, sorrow.”
This habit happens on a personal AND global level.
The Cold War is perhaps one of the best examples of the dangers of anticipating fear.
Millions of Americans and Soviets spent a huge amount of their psychic energy imagining the impending doom of war.
Many people were certain a war would come that would change the destiny of mankind.
Such a war never happened.
But the prospect of war left millions in a state of fear.
Recently, the events of 2020 had the same effect.
Billions of people remained fearful of the changing world order unsure about what the future held.
A mere 3 years later society has returned to much of its previous state.
Much of what we fear is an illusion.
Seneca Letter 13 Advice on Overcoming Fear
“What I advise you to do is, not to be unhappy before the crisis comes; since it may be that the dangers before which you paled as if they were threatening you, will never come upon you; they certainly have not yet come.”
— Seneca
The cure to overcoming fear is moving your energy from the imaginal world of the mind and placing it into the present moment.
You can’t be aware of two things at the same time.
Your attention is either in a projected future or in the now.
Training yourself in the art of mindfulness is the best way to tame a busy mind.
Learning to be grateful for what you have now will cure you of many fears.
Constantly remind yourself that what’s in your mind is not real.
It’s only a prediction albeit an often unreliable one.
If you are destined to suffer, then you will suffer when the time is right.
Similar advice was given by Roman Emperor and Stoic Philosopher Marcus Aurelius.
“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”
Mentally projecting into the future and anticipating terrible outcomes will not make you better equipped to face them when it is done unconsciously. This is different from Negative Visualization.
If you follow Seneca’s advice you will gain something significant.
Time.
When we prognosticate into an uncertain future, we waste a lot of mental capital and time.
We often can’t relax or enjoy the gifts the day has to offer because we are too busy thinking about the future.
Imagine how much time was wasted by people watching the news during the Cold War.
Or how about the time wasted by billions watching the news and debating in 2020?
As explained in Seneca’s other works, time is your greatest asset.
“The life we receive is not short but we make it so; we are not ill provided but use what we have wastefully.”
— Seneca (On the Shortness of Life)
Seneca Letter 13 – Law of compensation
You might have heard this popular phrase by Napoleon Hill.
“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”
But perhaps we should credit Seneca because he said something similar almost 2,000 years ago.
“Let another say. ‘Perhaps the worst will not happen.’ You yourself must say. ‘Well, what if it does happen? Let us see who wins! Perhaps it happens for my best interests; it may be that such a death will shed credit upon my life.’”
We can make peace with uncertainty by looking at things from a larger time horizon.
In Robert Ringer’s book ‘Million Dollar Habits’, he shares a story about his attorney friend who wanted to become an entrepreneur.
For years he failed to commit to his dream due to the demands of his law firm.
At some point, his whole life was turned upside down when he was indicted on a bribery charge regarding a television franchise.
The attorney claimed his innocence but was wrongly found guilty and had to spend 3 months in federal prison.
After finishing his sentence, he couldn’t continue with law because his reputation was tarnished.
To make things worse, he lost half his net worth fighting legal battles.
Hitting rock bottom he decided to start the business he once dreamed of.
His new business was a success, and he doubled his previous net worth.
Ultimately the court ruled the prior accusation to be false.
During the scandal, the lawyer likely spent a lot of time projecting into the future thinking about negative situations.
The negative outcome came in the form of losing his life’s work but hidden within the devastation was an opportunity.
An opportunity he wouldn’t have been able to see in hindsight.
This is why worrying about the future is pointless.
Our minds can’t comprehend the opportunities which arise over a long enough time horizon.
Predicting tomorrow is difficult enough let alone the next 6 months or 6 years.
Keep your attention in the now and enjoy your life.
Do this, and you will be one step closer to living and dying well.