Seneca Letter 28 – Why You Can’t Escape From Your Mind – Do This Instead
Seneca Letter 28 to Lucilius deals with frailty of traveling to escape from your mind.
“Are you surprised, as if it were a novelty, that after such long travel and so many changes of scene you have not been able to shake off the gloom and heaviness of your mind? You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate.”
— Seneca
People engulfed in wanderlust seek travel as a way to ‘find themselves’.
These people are often unsettled by their normal environment and they desire an escape.
These same people whilst travelling are shocked to see that the feelings they had back home are also experienced in new locations.
It’s as if a curse is following them.
Travel does not simply mean going on a holiday.
It could be changing living locations.
Swapping friends, transitioning in business, or anything that moves you from one external state to another.
This external movement addresses only the surface level problems.
To free yourself from the curse you need to dig deeper.
Why can’t you escape from your mind with travel?
“It is because you flee along with yourself. You must lay aside the burdens of the mind; until you do this, no place will satisfy you.”
— Seneca
When you move from one external state to another, you carry along your mind which remains the same.
The mind creates your experience of reality.
If your subconscious mind has been programmed to see the bad in situations, you will find fault regardless of any level of abundance you experience.
The extreme example of this is celebrities who take their own lives.
These celebrities are loved by millions and have ridiculous amounts of money and opportunities but still decide to end it.
This usually happens when their minds fixate on a trauma until it skews their whole perception of reality.
The mind makes any behavior which is repeated enough times into a habit.
Complaining is a habit.
Discontent is a habit.
Misery is also a habit.
Subjective experiences are triggered only by your interpretation of outside events.
Let’s say you’re a habitual complainer.
From a young age you have modelled the complaining habit from your parents.
As a youth you complained about not getting your favourite toys.
As a successful businessman you complain about not getting the latest upgrade on your new sportscar.
Different external situation, same subjective experience.
The external will always be at the mercy of the internal.
It’s this internal state which must be analyzed if one seeks freedom from their mind.
Seneca Letter 28 – Your Mind Creates Your Reality
“That trouble once removed, all change of scene will become pleasant; though you may be driven to the uttermost ends of the earth, in whatever corner of a savage land you may find yourself, that place, however forbidding, will be to you a hospitable abode.”
— Seneca
The mind can help you find the good in any situation if you make optimism a habit.
Viktor Frankl found meaning and purpose whilst staying in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust.
In Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela documented how he learned to have compassion and forgive his jailors.
“Even in the grimmest times in prison, when my comrades and I were pushed to our limits, I would see a glimmer of humanity in one of the guards, perhaps just for a second, but it was enough to reassure me and keep me going.”
When you work on your internal issues, you will learn how to turn seemingly negative situations into positive ones.
You will find the hidden upside of every situation and be able to maintain your tranquility.
This is one of the hallmarks of Stoicism – a deep focus on the internal over the external world.
“Can there be any spot so full of confusion as the Forum? Yet you can live quietly even there, if necessary.”
— Seneca
The Forum was a Roman center where people would meet up and talk (similar to the central district of a major city).
When push comes to shove you can find peace and happiness in any location.
Seneca doesn’t want us to stay in negative environments.
He explains how some places are ‘unwholesome for a healthy mind’.
If you are living in a toxic environment, by all means do your best to change your situation.
Just remember that you do not need to be a slave to any situation, you can transcend it.
Having a free mind in the midst of chaos is a sign of personal mastery.
Having your mood constantly dictated by the external is a sign of mental slavery.
Seneca invites us to be like Socrates.
“’There were thirty tyrants surrounding Socrates, and yet they could not break his spirit’; but what does it matter how many masters a man has? ‘Slavery’ has no plural; and he who has scorned it is free—no matter amid how large a mob of over-lords he stands.”
How to obtain freedom
Therefore, as far as possible, prove yourself guilty, hunt up charges against yourself; play the part, first of accuser, then of judge, last of intercessor. At times be harsh with yourself.
— Seneca
To free yourself you need to get in the habit of catching yourself in sin.
The word ‘sin’ originates from archery and means ‘missing the mark’.
When you sin (not biblical sin), you miss the target which is your ideal.
If you want to be a happy person, you need to practice the art of happiness.
You do this by self-generating happiness despite outside circumstances, and allowing the emotion to arise naturally.
“The most important trick to be happy is to realize that happiness is a choice that you make and a skill that you develop”
— Naval Ravikant
If you want to stop rushing into anger,
You watch yourself and become more aware of situations which provoke you.
You use your awareness to study the patterns and you learn to spot the signs.
A good time to reflect on your progress is at night before bed.
Try Seneca’s evening routine if you wish to master yourself.
You can also reprogram your subconscious mind to work towards your ideal with Neville Goddard’s Revision technique.
Do this, and you will be one step closer to living and dying well.