The Agile Mind
Attuning our mind during times of adversity
Mind Candy is a newsletter on practical philosophy and human flourishment—aka how to live “the good life.” Each month we tackle a new theme.
This month we’re exploring the theme of adversity.
When adversity strikes, it tends to do so with a bang, snapping us from our everyday existence.
You come home to an argument with your significant other
Your boss hands you a new project with an unrealistic deadline and refuses to budge
You have an unexpected expense and now are behind on bills
And when we’re in these moments, we tend to be on our heels, pushed back by the sudden arrival of the challenge.
But as the Stoics believed, we hold everything we need within us to address these challenges.
We just need to attune our mind appropriately.
Check your knee-jerk impressions
Built within each of us are opinions of the world. They come from our family and friends, the direct experiences we’ve had, the things we take in from movies, music, and social media.
When situations strike and we’re pushed back, our immediate action is for our mind to go to these impressions.
For example, perhaps when our boss provides feedback, we immediately dismiss them because of past experiences with them.
But just because these are what spring from within us doesn’t mean they’re right, or even helpful, for the situation, they simply are manifested by us because they’re what we know from past experience.
It is from these impressions we first experience the problem at hand. What we think about, Marcus Aurelius reminded himself, is what directs our mind. And what our mind becomes then colors our soul.
With each impression we have some form of judgment. But these judgements are flexible.
“Any assessment we make is subject to alteration - just as we are ourselves. Look closely at them - how impermanent they are, how meaningless.”
Epictetus taught that we’re often frustrated in situations like this, but that the power to change is directly in our control.
“let us never hold anyone responsible except ourselves, meaning our own opinions.”
We can shift our thinking of the situation by first bringing our focus to the immediate thoughts we have for what’s at hand.
Consider where control lies
”Some things in the world are up to us, while others are not. Up to us are our faculties of judgment - motivation, desire, and aversion - in short, everything that is our own doing. Not up to us are our body and property, our reputations, and our official positions - in short, everything that is not our own doing.”
Surveying the situation is critical to getting a better sense of how to respond.
So often, we spend time and energy attempting to change people or situations we have no control over.
This doesn’t mean we just give up, however. Rather, we need to try and get a sense of where control in the situation lies. While we do not control everything, we do influence things outside of our control.
We’re not just passive observers, we ourselves are a player in the scenario and therefore must figure out how to proceed. So it is about finding a balance between control and lack of control. It is in this space we find the true power of the moment and what we can do about it.
We can’t just dismiss it because we’re not in control. Our role has to be about finding a way to figure out where our leverage lies and influence the situation if we don’t have direct control.
Check the scenario from a different angle
When we’re in the thick of things, it’s easy to get wrapped into the situation and not know which way to go. It can feel like we’re swimming in the middle of the ocean with no view of land anywhere in sight.
But if we can create space between the event and our initial reaction to it, we can attempt to view the scenario from other angles.
One key exercise Marcus Aurelius would perform would be to look at the event as though he were above it.
“Look down from above on the countless gatherings and countless ceremonies, and every sort of voyage in storm and calm, and the disputes between those being born, living together, and dying. Think also of the life that was lived by others long ago, and that will be lived after you, and that is being lived now in other countries; think of how many don’t know your name at all, how many will quickly forget it, how many who – perhaps praising you now – will soon be finding fault. Realize that being remembered has no value, nor does your reputation, nor anything else at all.”
Known today as the view from above, this tactic allows us to find distance between us and the situation. We can observe the events on different timelines — will this matter in a year? In five? In the grand scheme of our lives? — as well as from different angles.
Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell once said, having viewed the world from space:
“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it.
From out there on the Moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, “Look at that, you son of a bitch.””
Yet when we’re in the thick of it down on earth, we don’t get such clarity and distance.
But this distance is what provides clarity. It provides insights we can’t see when we’re so close and in it. We’re often only seeing a fraction of the picture. But if we pull back, if we can look at the situation from an objective point of view, we provide ourselves the ability to see a much grander narrative at play.
This will then assist us in taking the appropriate steps to tackle the scenario at hand.
Release your pride
“Pride blunts the very instrument we need to own in order to succeed: our mind. Out ability to learn, to adapt, to be flexible, to build relationships, all of this is dulled by pride.”
How often do we stand in our own way? How often do we allow perfection to be the enemy of good? Or we don’t act because we’re not confident we know what to do?
Many times we get in our own way, preventing ourselves from taking action. We’re afraid of how we’re going to look, whether we’re going to succeed or fail, what others might think.
But if we can remove our pride, we open up a world of possibilities of what to try.
Marcus Aurelius tied his decision-making process to the limited time we have on earth. He shook his head at how we hold ourselves back when time is so short.
“how is he not a fool who in the midst of all this is puffed up with pride, or tormented, or bewails his lot as though his troubles will endure for any great while?” he asks himself.
When we reflect on the limited nature of life and the situation at hand, we can more easily move ourselves from an ego-driven mindset to a more open one because we come to realize life is fleeting and we must grab it. Now.
Adversity will continue to strike, it is a part of life. But just because it strikes doesn’t mean we have to be pushed back in our heels from it. By cultivating the proper mindset to life and the adversities we face, we can more readily overcome them and master the challenges of the day.
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Until next time,
D.A. DiGerolamo
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