Au Naturel
Au Naturel
When the world goes crazy on me, I have two ways I cope. One is my demon. I stop caring what other people think. If anything I get in their face about whatever is bothering them.
You got a problem with me? It's your problem, not mine.
I have short-circuited what was about to become a full-blown panic attack that way. It is incredibly freeing because having nothing left to lose is a form of freedom. But it can be problematic. It can cause you trouble beyond the issue at hand. Not a good strategy in a vulnerable position if the other person has a lot of power over you.
There's another tool I use, philosophy. Specifically the philosophy of stoicism. Stoicism was first fully articulated by a "love-sick queer teenager" by the name of Marcus Aurelius. You see the same concepts enunciated in Zen Buddhism. You see it in the works of atheist Albert Camus and the Jewish Viktor Frankl. You see it in the psychological theory of Radical Acceptance.
One short summary of it is the "Serenity Prayer."
Much of the time one can shorten that down to, "It is what it is. Oh well."
The Stoic Antidote to Frustration: Marcus Aurelius on How to Keep Your Mental Composure and Emotional Equanimity When People Let You Down
You got a problem with me? It's your problem, not mine.
I have short-circuited what was about to become a full-blown panic attack that way. It is incredibly freeing because having nothing left to lose is a form of freedom. But it can be problematic. It can cause you trouble beyond the issue at hand. Not a good strategy in a vulnerable position if the other person has a lot of power over you.
There's another tool I use, philosophy. Specifically the philosophy of stoicism. Stoicism was first fully articulated by a "love-sick queer teenager" by the name of Marcus Aurelius. You see the same concepts enunciated in Zen Buddhism. You see it in the works of atheist Albert Camus and the Jewish Viktor Frankl. You see it in the psychological theory of Radical Acceptance.
One short summary of it is the "Serenity Prayer."
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Much of the time one can shorten that down to, "It is what it is. Oh well."
The Stoic Antidote to Frustration: Marcus Aurelius on How to Keep Your Mental Composure and Emotional Equanimity When People Let You Down
"The vast majority of our mental, emotional, and spiritual suffering comes from the violent collision between our expectations and reality. As we dust ourselves off amid the rubble, bruised and indignant, we further pain ourselves with the exertion of staggering emotional energy on outrage at how reality dared defy what we demanded of it.
"The remedy, of course, is not to bend the reality of an impartial universe to our will. The remedy is to calibrate our expectations — a remedy that might feel far too pragmatic to be within reach in the heat of the collision-moment, but also one with profound poetic undertones once put into practice."
Or as they would say in Radical Acceptance:"The remedy, of course, is not to bend the reality of an impartial universe to our will. The remedy is to calibrate our expectations — a remedy that might feel far too pragmatic to be within reach in the heat of the collision-moment, but also one with profound poetic undertones once put into practice."
Pain is unavoidable Suffering is optional.
