How to get rid of suffering with the philosophy of stoicism

Develop an internal locus of control

Of course, in practice, everything is far from so simple. You may realize that interruptions in work or traffic jams are out of your control, but you will still get angry and annoyed.

How would Epictetus, one of the most famous Stoic philosophers, react in such a situation? He believed that any negative incident is bad not because of what exactly happened, but because of how we reacted to it.

You must always be prepared for injustice, hardship, stress and pain.

Looking at the world in this way, you take full responsibility for your life and begin to see the cause of discontent not in external events, but in your reaction to them. Psychologists call this the internal locus of control. This is the tendency to believe that not external, but internal factors determine how life develops.

Diversify the sources of joy

Try to think like an investor or entrepreneur: don't put all your resources into one thing. Allocate your time and energy to multiple sources of joy. It is very important to balance the meaning that you find in work with other things: hobbies and personal projects.

It's too risky to associate your identity with only one niche, because it can always happen that you lose this niche, and with it your identity. In life, something will always happen, something will go wrong, it is inevitable.

If you have many sources of joy and meaning, you will no longer fall into despair when unforeseen circumstances disrupt the flow of your life.

Suffering does not come from external sources, but from within. Therefore, the most important thing is to learn to perceive obstacles and difficulties in a different way. As Epictetus said: "People are tormented not by things, but by ideas about them."