This article is Part 2 of an introduction to Stoicism for trauma survivors. In an introduction to Aristotelian virtue ethics I posted recently, I said this: Tough times calls for tough people. Personal resilience begins with toughening our minds. See, in G's take on human biology, the mind supports the spine. A weak mind causes the spine to dissolve. My major concern with progressives is the mind-spine connection. Only hard work creates a tough mind. Our minds are plastic: life will mold it for you if you don't construct it through will, hard work, perseverance. It applies everywhere.
Part 1/3 is here: http://caucus99percent.com/content/stoicism-trauma-survivors-part-13

The series is based on the teachings of the Roman Stoic, Epictetus, who taught around 100 C.E. In the first part, we looked at two of five "questions:"
1. What is the goal of life? Stoicism says it is to flourish.
2: What is good? Stoicism says there is a third category in the moral universe, namely “neutral.” Good and evil reside only within us. Neutrals – preferred and dispreferred – are things and events external to us.

Here will will look at the third question: 3. What is within our power to do?
Might as well listen to one of my favourite artists: Johnny Clegg, here with Juluka

In the first part, we explored the question of what is "good" (and obviously, bad) in life. Stoicism says that, in contrast with most popular cultures, the moral universe is made up of the "good," the "bad" and also, not the "ugly," but rather the "indifferent." The indifferent comprises all external things and events. The "good" and the "bad" properly belong only to what is internal to human beings. The indifferent comes in two flavours: the "preferred" like health and wealth, and the "dispreferred" like sickness and poverty.

The third question is, "What then is within our power to do?

3. What is within our power?

Stoicism says: within our power is the authority over our selves, over our character.

External things (which are “indifferent”) are outside of our power.
Sickness, for example, is not in our power. Neither is the competence of the doctor.

Within our power is the capacity to judge anything that is dispreferred not as “bad,” but as “indifferent” - and not strong enough to overwhelm our character.

Within our power then are these four types of thoughts:
• opinions
• impulses
• desires
• aversions
We will unpack those four in a moment.

Outside of our power are these four things:
• body
• possessions
• reputation
• status

One of the problems that arise out of trauma is that we become confused over the power, the authority, over our selves.
For example, I feel as though I am in the power of doctors – the useful and the useless ones.

I feel as though I am in the power of my spouse, who protects me from the things I struggle to endure. (Blessings upon you, Lovie, and thank you.)

I feel as though I am in the power of the social system that is supposed to steer me through the process of healing, for example the VAC medical systems or the policies in place for work, such as time off for medical appointments.

I feel like I am in the power of individuals in influential positions in my life, such as my boss or family members.
Sometimes these things and people work for me and sometimes against me. Now, I can decide I am against all of these because I think they are “bad” things and retire to the basement where I nurse my wounds (and probably my beer) by myself. The advantage of that course of action is that it lessens the pain and confusion from outside. The disadvantage is I’ll never get better, only much, much worse.

Stoicism says I should view all these external things and events as morally neutral. They are neither good nor bad, and not strong enough to overwhelm my character, if I don’t let them.

The fact that there are a bunch of workplace policies that sometimes help and sometimes hinder is neither good not bad. I should not waste a single breath fuming about a policy that works against me (one that I would call “bad.”) Of course I should work to ameliorate its effects on me. But I should judge it as a "dispreferred neutral" and say to myself, “This is not strong enough to overwhelm my character. I alone am the authority over my character and I will build my character through this experience, no matter how batshit it drives me now.”

If I find the doctor not helpful, I should not say something bad is happening to me. I should of course find a different doctor. But in the meantime I should say, “This is a dispreferred neutral thing, not an evil; it has no power to harm my character. I am stronger than this experience.”

Basically I have the power to switch off the thought that, “Something bad is happening to me.”

I have the power within me to rather say, “This is a dispreferred neutral thing and has no power over me. I am stronger than this thing.”

How would we use the things within our power (our thoughts) to control emotions no matter the provocation?

Stoicism says we control ourselves by “making proper use of impressions.” An impression is what is, ahem, impressed into the mind by the senses (a gestalt, I suppose).

Following an impression, we usually assent to whether it is “good” or “bad.” In other words, we make an evaluation, informed by either popular culture and/or nature.

If one evaluates the impression as bad, negative emotions will automatically follow.

Stoicism teaches us simply to stick with the factual impression, without progressing to faulty interpretations and evaluations. Here are some quotes from Epictetus:

“It is not circumstances themselves that trouble people, but their judgment about those circumstances.” (Handbook 5)
“Do not assent to an unexamined impression, but say, ‘Stop, let me see what you are and where you come from.’”(Discourses 3.12)

“Train yourself to say to every unpleasant impression, ‘You are an impression and by no means what you appear to be.’ Then examine it and test it by the rules that you have, firstly by asking whether it concerns things that are in our power or things that are not in our power: and if it concerns something not in our power, have ready to hand the answer, ‘This is nothing to me.’” (Handbook 1.5)

"X’s son is dead. 'That lies outside his power; it is not an evil.'" (i.e., it is a dispreferred indifferent.)

"His father has disinherited X. 'That lies outside his power; it is not an evil.' (i.e., it is a dispreferred indifferent.)
He was grieved at all this. “That lies in his power; it is an evil.”
He has borne up under this manfully. “That lies within his power; it is a good.” (Discourses 3.8)

So what is within my power? My thoughts.
“But,” screams the one with PTSD, “I don’t have control over my thoughts.”

Yes, often it seems that my thoughts run away with me, scare me, make me feel crazy, or lead me to do dumb or dangerous things. But my thoughts are in my power, no matter how much I feel that they are not. I can fight bad thoughts with good thoughts. I can use another thought to fight this one that is hurting me.

Here are some examples of Stoicism’s four types of thoughts.

First, we are in charge of our opinions.
I am, in fact, in charge of my opinions. I can stop saying, “You’re an asshole” to the driver that just cut me off and make myself say, “You are a very confused person and a poor driver. But it is nothing to me.” Without swearing even! I have that power. It is an awesome power, superpower, actually. I am someone who has done some dangerously idiotic things through road rage. now, when I have my groove on, I'm superman, I'm impervious to the stupidity of other drivers.
Second, we are in charge also of our impulses.

I can make myself not raise my middle finger to that other driver by instead shaking my hand. My first progress was moving from middle finger to fist to a sort of royal wave that says, “I see your stupidity and you are nothing to me.”
Nowadays, I say, "You're on a mission from G*d: the penguin's gonna be angry," with a smile. Real progress.

Third type of thought is desires.
Stoicism says I can overcome my desires. I can say, “My two-pack a day habit is going kill me. I will look for help to overcome this awful addiction I have to smoking.” Of course, the matter is much more complex, but the principle is valid.

A fourth type of thought is aversions.
That’s not a word we come across often. Trauma survivors have many aversions. What does it mean?

These are thoughts that make me hide from things. I don’t want to feel mental pain anymore, so I hide from things that cause me any mental pain. Let’s say I had a dysfunctional relationship with my family and the things we did and say to each other often caused me (and them) mental pain. So I stopped communicating with them, because I had developed an aversion to (the mental pain produced by) talking to them.

But I have it in my power to say, “This aversion to emotional pain is cutting me off from improving my relationships. I have to talk with them otherwise we are going to drift apart and I will lose them.”

So I would talk with my therapist about it. Eventually I would need relationship counseling, including family counseling, to make it better. However, I have to have to overcome my aversion to emotional pain first. A good therapist or peer counselor could help me find out what is at the bottom of this particular aversion.

And yes, I came whisker-close to losing my family. We all had therapy and learned about our aversions and relearned communication techniques. I am thankful for the Canadian Armed Forces Military Family Resource Centres and the peer support, family counselling, child counselling, and group therapy it provided to my family.

Why are thoughts so important?

Why is it so critical to gain control over them?

Why is it so important to replace bad thoughts with good thoughts?

It is important, because thoughts are always linked to emotions. Always.

Epictetus says, “The disappointment of desire or the incurring of aversion produces emotions: the feeling of misfortune, calamity, sorrow, envy and jealousy: it makes one incapable of listening to reason.” (Discourses 3.2.3)

If my thoughts are bad, the accompanying emotions will be harmful. If my thoughts are good, the accompanying emotions will be healthy.

And it is the emotions that drive the sense of health or sickness. Change the thoughts and the emotions change. This is at the heart of cognitive behavioural therapy, which, by the way, Albert Ellis largely based on Stoicism.

Epictetus says, “When I see a person anxious, I ask, ‘What does this person want? If he did not want something that is not in his power, how could he be anxious?’” (Discourses 2.13)

The only real source of human misery is negative emotions, not external events.

We should not place our hopes in external things that are not in our power, but in our own character leading us to excellence and flourishing.

The next and last question for Part 3 is "How do I know how to act?" I have to figure out how to put ancient wisdom into practice in daily life.

I look forward to your comments, images, and music.

Peace be with us, if we learn and persevere in stoic principles (no disclaimer: I work hard on this)
gerrit