Stoic Lessons: Negative Visualization
A Guide To The Good Life by William Irvine attempts to create a practical guide on how to use Stoic practices in your everyday life. Although it’s not necessary to understand Stoic philosophy, having it as a companion book as you work through Stoic text can be a useful way to pry out methods and practices that can improve your life.
One such practice is negative visualization which can be used to deal with the adaptation process.
Adaptation Process
The term adaptation process refers to the idea of getting used to past accomplishments. We start by setting a goal that we greatly desire. Then we work hard toward that goal and finally attain it after a period of trials and tribulations. Once we achieve the goal, we are overcome with joy. However, the joy is fleeting. Meaning, that the further we move away from the point of when we achieve our goal, the less joy we feel about having attained that goal. And one day, that thing we wanted so badly just became another thing we did. It no longer results in joy or satisfaction. We have adapted to that achievement. Then, we look for another goal and the cycle begins all over again.
Constantly seeking.
The same idea applies to wants and desires as well. Once previous desires have been met, we quickly turn to another desire. Such a life can often be unsatisfactory because we are always on the move to the next thing. This can be a problem with materialistic things but also with more important things like jobs and relationships which we have worked hard to attain but then think there might be something or someone better out there.
“As a result of the adaptation process, people find themselves on a satisfaction treadmill. They are unhappy when they detect an unfulfilled desire within them. They work hard to fulfill this desire, in the belief that on fulfilling it, they will gain satisfaction. The problem, though, is that once they fulfill a desire for something, they adapt to its presence in their life and as a result stop desiring it-or at any rate, don’t find it as desirable as they once did. They end up just as dissatisfied as they were before fulfilling the desire.”
Naturally, the solution to the problem is clear. Instead of jumping from one thing to the next, we need to take our time and appreciate what we have and what we have achieved.
But, there is an argument to be made that constantly seeking the next thing is the ideal way to live. No one wants to be that person who always talks about what they did ten years ago.
However, you don’t want to take what you have for granted. Especially when it comes to the people around you and the life you have built thanks to your tireless effort. Because in a blink of an eye, everything can change.
One way to appreciate what you have and stop the adaptation process from always occurring is through negative visualization.
Negative Visualization: Reversing The Adaptation Process
“The Stoics thought they had an answer to this question. They recommended that we spend time imagining that we have lost the things we value-that our wife has left us, our car was stolen, or we lost our job. Doing this, the Stoics thought, will make us value our wife, our car, and our job more than we otherwise would. This technique-let us refer to it as negative visualization-was employed by the Stoics at least as far back as Chrysippus.”
One of the toughest realities of life is that nothing lasts forever. A lot of us don’t want to face the reality that perhaps one day your love for your wife will diminish or vice versa. Or that you’ll make a poor business decision and lose what you’ve worked so hard to build. Or that you’ll get into an accident and no longer be able to use your physical or mental attributes.
These are all possibilities and the scariest part about it is that most of these are out of our control. We may have a small percentage of control in each avenue but it might not be significant enough to make a difference.
Much of life simply happens to us and it’s our responsibility to react accordingly. So, before something tragic happens, it’s best to make use of the good times and appreciate what you have.
The love of a partner, time spent with friends, the fruits of your labour, the functioning abilities of your arms, legs, eyes, mind and so on. These things are precious and require our gratitude.
One of the main points that the Stoics hammered constantly in their text was to appreciate the life you have. To live as if each day were your last.
“In other words, when the Stoics counsel us to live each day as if it were our last, their goal is not to change our activities but to change our state of mind as we carry out those activities. In particular, they don’t want us to stop thinking about or planning for tomorrow; instead they want us, as we think about and plan for tomorrow, to remember to appreciate today.”
Daily Practice
Practice: “A few times each day or a few times each week a Stoic will pause in his enjoyment of life to think about how all this, all these things he enjoys, could be taken from him.”
You might imagine that contemplating on loss and the finitude of not only our own life but all the things around us might cause us to become pessimistic or even depressed. The Stoics would disagree. In fact, negative visualization exercise is one of their ways to induce optimism.
“We normally characterize an optimist as someone who sees his glass as being half full rather than half empty. For a Stoic, though, this degree of optimism would only be a starting point. After expressing his appreciation that his glass is half full rather than being completely empty, he will go on to express his delight in even having a glass.”
The simple fact that you can stop and contemplate is a blessing in and of itself. Furthermore, in negative visualization, you are constantly seeing how things could be worse than what they are. This makes you appreciate what you have but also feel a sense of joy with what you have instead of thinking about what you don’t have.
There’s nothing wrong with setting new goals. For many people, achievement is closely linked with fulfillment. However, you don’t want to take what you have for granted because once that moment passes, a loss occurs, you’ll never be able to go back.
So, appreciate and be grateful for what you have. Even the smallest, mundane things.
Originally published at http://learnedlivingorg.wordpress.com on February 11, 2024.