Posted on January 20, 2022

"Stoicism is not about suppressing or hiding emotion—rather, it is about acknowledging our emotions, reflecting on what causes them, and redirecting them for our own good."

—Massimo Pigliucci, How to Be a Stoic

Stoicism is, in my opinion, a very wise philosophy. For instance, I find its view on emotions fascinating. It teaches not to run away from them, but rather face them, accept them, and act according to our own good. Emphasizing, however, the reflection on the cause of the emotion before the reaction.

Such a view is a very diligent one: instead of losing ourselves in the emotions (i.e. our body reactions) and having them affect our feelings (i.e. our conscious—or unconscious—experience to such reactions), Stoicism urges to focus on understanding the emotions before they take the sole control of our feelings.

Before starting to study Stoicism, I had already learned a very similar take on this topic for the teachings at the Art of Living Foundation. For a while now, I’ve practiced the acknowledgement of my emotions and the reflection of what causes them, and then understanding that there is actually no need for them to affect my feelings. I guess that I’m missing part of the Stoic formula: redirecting the emotion for my own good. Thus, I will be more conscious of this from now—to see if I notice any difference—, because I want to, and because I can.