Change Your Mind, Change Your Life
Perspective shifting in Stoicism
Perspective shifting in Stoicism
“The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.”
-Marcus Aurelius
The way we think determines the way we live our lives. The Stoics believed that what set us apart from every other animal was our commanding faculty, or our ability to use logic and reason.
Through this thought process, the Stoics felt that through the use of logic, we could examine our thoughts and then use logic to change our judgments and perspectives of our initial thoughts, thus, helping to manage the emotional pull of situations.
Below are four ways we can change our mind to change our lives.
Thoughts and judgments can and should change with time and experience
“Any assessment we make is subject to alteration — just as we are ourselves. Look closely at them — how impermanent they are, how meaningless.”
-Marcus Aurelius
The thoughts we have are developed over time and experience. As children, our parent’s thoughts rub off on us, but as we age and experience life for ourselves, our own thoughts begin to change and expand with our own life experiences.
As we age, we should continually question our beliefs. We come to new realizations every week and these revelations should impact the rest of our thinking.
Our life philosophy is constantly being updated the more we experience life for ourselves.
Look deeper into intentions
“Until you know their reasons, how do you know whether they acted wrongly. This way you will not combine indubitable impressions of a situation with an endorsement of something else that lacks this certainty.”
-Epictetus
Often, we judge situations based upon only what we see.
But seldom do we attempt to look closer and see what lies beneath the actions of others.
In each and every situation we encounter, we should work to disengage our automatic response to believe we know why someone did something and instead inquiry into the possibilities of why they may have acted the way they did.
Look beyond appearances
“At all times, look at the thing itself — the thing behind the appearance — unpack it by analysis:
Cause
Substance
Purpose
and the length of time it exists.”
-Marcus Aurelius
Everything around us can be broken down into categories to better understand them.
As Marcus wrote to himself, we can break down events into their cause (what led to this), their substance (what is making this situation up?), and purpose (what is the purpose of this event?).
We choose if the situation will help or hinder us
“Every situation has two handles, as it were, one making it supportable and the other insupportable.”
-Epictetus
As we experience events, we have the choice to choose whether the event will help or hinder us. Often times, when things go our way, we’re happy and know the situation can help us.
But when an event doesn’t immediately help us, we tend to become frustrated and can even complain that the world is against us.
But this doesn’t mean that the event is a hindrance, it just means our judgment of the event is negative. The event itself can be turned into a positive if we choose to look for ways in which the event can help us grow.
We should never forget Marcus’ advice to himself:
“Choose not to be harmed — and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed — and you haven’t been.”
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