Practice like a Stoic: 48, Counter anger with maxims

Memorize Stoic maxims and use them as mantras whenever needed

Maintaining calm while meditating on a maxim, by Midjourney.

[This series of posts is based on A Handbook for New Stoics—How to Thrive in a World out of Your Control, co-authored by yours truly and Greg Lopez. It is a collection of 52 exercises, which we propose reader try out one per week during a whole year, to actually live like a Stoic. In Europe/UK the book is published by Rider under the title Live Like A Stoic.Below is this week’s prompt and a brief explanation of the pertinent philosophical background. Check the book for details on how to practice the exercise, download the exercise forms from The Experiment’s website, and comment below on how things are going. Greg and/or I will try our best to help out! This week’s exercise is found at pp. 277-278 of the paperback edition.]

“Whither, say you, does this inquiry tend? That we may know what anger is. For if it springs up against our will, it never will yield to reason, because all the motions which take place without our volition are beyond our control and unavoidable, such as shivering when cold water is poured over us, or shrinking when we are touched in certain places. Men’s hair rises up at bad news, their faces blush at indecent words, and they are seized with dizziness when looking down a precipice. And as it is not in our power to prevent any of these things, no reasoning can prevent their taking place. But anger can be put to flight by wise maxims, for it is a voluntary defect of the mind, and not one of those things which are evolved by the conditions of human life, and which, therefore, may happen even to the wisest of us.” (Seneca, On Anger, 2.2)

Seneca offers a three-phase analysis of the structure of anger, which we first encountered in Week 27. The first phase is a prereflective reaction in our body: The onset of anger occurs without conscious thought on our part and is inevitable. This is signaled by a rush of adrenaline, and falls into the same category as the other involuntary reactions Seneca mentions, which include shivering when exposed to cold water and blushing in response to inappropriate comments. To attempt to avoid these automatic reactions is useless and foolish. The second phase is cognitive: You reflect on what is going on, recognize it as anger, and rapidly review and judge its cause. This is where we have a window to act. This week’s exercise builds on last week’s in seeking to make that action instinctive. The third phase takes place when you have already given assent and it’s too late for you to do anything about it. Anger is now out of control, no longer subject to reason, and will run its course with the predictable nefarious consequences. This is anger proper, and what the Stoics cautioned us to avoid.

To fight against anger, Seneca proposes another technique: the use of maxims. It’s an interesting device, and one that we’ve found effective in our personal experience. The appropriate maxims are selected by us during periods of calm, when we can reason about the unhealthy nature of anger and meditate on counteracting it. By repeating maxims to yourself you can direct your mind, little by little, to go there as an acquired reflex. We’ve seen this in action in Week 35, when we trained ourselves to question every action we are prone to engage in. In the Discipline of Action we used the metaphor of a proficient car driver who no longer has to pay conscious attention to every movement and situation, because her experience has made many of her decisions and moves automatic. That’s what we are aiming for here, and it’s what repeating Stoic maxims over and over will do for us.