How The Stoics Dealt With Anxiety (10 Strategies)

How much more enjoyable would your days be without the constant dread of stress looming over you?

Anxiety was one of the main emotions Stoicism was built to handle. In this video best-selling author Ryan Holiday explores 10 of the best time-tested ways that the Stoics dealt with anxiety.

The pages of Marcus Aurelius’s private journal are filled with notes to himself on how to ‘escape anxiety’. Epictetus says the ‘most important task in life’ was determining what we could control and what we couldn’t, in an effort to ease daily anxieties. Seneca’s letters are constant reminders to not suffer before it is necessary. And not just reminders, but practical, actionable steps to overcoming both.

00:00 Intro
01:39 1. Focus On The Little Things
02:29 2. Practice Gratitude
03:21 3. Have No Opinion
03:55 4. Stop Caring About What People Think
04:23 5. Process Your Emotions
05:39 6. Don’t Suffer Imagined Troubles
06:32 7. Choose Not To Be Harmed
07:19 8. Go For A Walk
08:27 9. Keep A Journal
09:05 10. Grab The Right Handle

#Stoicism​ #DailyStoic​ #RyanHoliday​

[DailyStoic]

The Strategies:

01:39 1. Focus On The Little Things
02:29 2. Practice Gratitude
03:21 3. Have No Opinion
03:55 4. Stop Caring About What People Think
04:23 5. Process Your Emotions
05:39 6. Don’t Suffer Imagined Troubles
06:32 7. Choose Not To Be Harmed
07:19 8. Go For A Walk
08:27 9. Keep A Journal
09:05 10. Grab The Right Handle

[Neezy]

“we suffer more in imagination than in reality”….resonates every time!

[deocalimbas]

I just had a break up with my long term girlfriend, and just heard from her that she's getting married. I perceived this as a moment of growth, a learning experience, a door for better opportunities. I felt the emotions, I cried, but I choose to use logic and carry on with a positive mindset.

[renatablindoso]

Anxiety has less to do with outside events and more to do with how we feel inside. Anxiety hits when we feel powerless and unable to deal with things. It's useless to tell an anxious person everything is ok.. The opposite of anxious is not calm, is the feeling of "I can do this". The best way to overcome anxiety is telling yourself or others: "You can do this! You have power and strength within you!"

[TylerDaSilva]

"The best time to do something was back then, but the second best time to do it is right now." Man I love this quote so much

[josephdeleon]

My mind is always racing, there's so much information out there I think sometimes it's too much to process. Social media doesn't help either. I think keeping life simple is the key, controlling what we can control, not worrying about what's going to happen tomorrow.

[sharonmorris]

I'm nothing on Youtube but I'm a mental health professional of 30 years with a focus on trauma/resilience. Ive also lived with anxiety, and Ive found the answer, and it's pushing through. Never feeding the beast but starving it by doing exactly those things and finding joy in them.

[josephowens]

I firmly believe anxiety was a driving force in the development of stoicism. The main proponents were highly intelligent/imaginative with a constant flow of information requiring decisions the would shape or shake their entire civilisation. The curse of a active mind that accompanies its blessing is you can see the dangers that lie ahead sometimes several moves ahead of your present choices. T can easily become crippling and make you envy simpler minds that can only wonder what their dinner will be tonight. Almost the entirety of stoicism is deduced to calming and all the emotions that cloud and confuse the mind into chasing shadows thrown by itself.

[BikerJim]

I got for a walk every day, at least 2 miles. It really does help clear the mind.

[lailaalfaddil]

The most important thing that should be on everyone's mind currently should be to invest in different sources of income that doesn't depend on the government. Especially with the current economic crisis around the word. This is still a good time to invest in various stocks, Gold, silver and digital currencies.

[rscotthudson]

"You don't have to have an opinion about that." So obvious, and so deep. That you for sharing this great insight.

[DrGreenaway]

As a clinical psychologist that specializes in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), I can truly see how CBT is a repackaging of many stoic ideas, such as these. Thank you for spelling it out and explaining these ideas.

[militustoica]

I was literally just thinking about this when I looked down at my phone and saw this. Stoicism is an excellent coping mechanism for PTSD, I’ve found.

The hard part is sometimes accepting the transitory nature of everything. But you can’t fight reality. Everything passes. All pain. All pleasure. All you can do is accept it.

[CoffeeFuelledGenius]

Fell deeply into all of this… I even carry a pendant with momento Mori on it, I’ll never stop coming back to this channel. stoicism has helped me immensely! Thank you Ryan ✌🏼

[fndmntl]

I love you dude... Honestly, being a stoic has changed my life... I was lazy and still am but now I actually want to do things... I wanna get healthy, I wanna go out into the world, I wanna learn

Thanks

[mehrzadhei]

The worst thing we ever suffer from is fear, and the greatest gain you will receive is to be rid of that fear.
It was as if a great mist had suddenly lifted from my mind. I could see so clearly that that panic caused by anxiety wasn't some sort of weakness in me. It was a cyclical self-reinforcing pattern caused by giving anxiety so much power... far from relieving the feeling, was causing it. At the same time, I could see that all these other 'happy' people were
going through the same nightmare that I was, all putting up phoney arguments to try to justify their addiction to anxious thoughts.

IT'S SO NICE TO BE FREE!

[DrumWild]

I once stopped caring what my boss and co-workers thought. I ended up dropping by boundaries [thanks, Autism!] and I lost my job within a matter of days, and became unemployable.

As a result, I still don't care what the average person things, but I am terrified of people who have the power to determine whether or not I can eat tomorrow and what they think.

[dmajhan]

This is a fantastic high level overview. Like other posts it helps to re-watch every so often to help reinforce the points covered. Thanks for posting!

[yes]

Thank you for this video. I've been doing wrong so many things from your list, that it really is an opportunity to grow for me.
Especially I love the part about taking power over what can harm you and letting go urge to be a judge. This is wisdom my life has been lacking

[davidbowman]

I have been doing a deep-dive into stoicism for the last 18 months and I have realised this year I need to start writing a journal. This is something I've never done before and should have started 15 yrs ago.