How did Emperor Marcus Aurelius deal with anxiety?

Luke

January 6, 2020

(Source: Penguin Random House)

It’s a strange and comforting thing to consider that a Roman Emperor, who lived and ruled an empire almost two thousand years ago — suffered anxieties, much like any of us ordinary plebs today — but he did.

How would I know that, you might ask? Was I there? And if it’s all, well, in the head anyway, then…how would I know? Right? Okay, let me explain.

Because he wrote about it, and he may have something important to say about it. 

So, what exactly does Emperor Marcus Aurelius say about Anxiety?

That we create it.

I know what a punch to the gut right. From a Roman Emperor no less. That’s bound to lay anyone out. Although, to be fair, he was addressing himself, so don’t take it too personally. 

Where was I, ah yes: We create our anxieties. How so?

Let the Stoic Philosopher Marcus Aurelius explain.

In Book 4 of his Meditations, he counsels himself, saying:

Finally, then, remember this retreat into your own little territory within yourself. Above all, no agonies, no tensions. Be your own master, and look at things as a man, as a human being, as a citizen, as a mortal creature. And here are two of the most immediately useful thoughts you will dip into. First that things cannot touch the mind: they are external and inert; anxieties can only come from your internal judgement. (Meditations, Book 4, p. 24)

So what is he saying exactly?

That our anxieties only come from our internal judgements rather than external things. That anxiety is not caused by the things in themselves, but rather by how we think about those things — an event, a person, an object. 

What? I hear you say. Surely the things out there create the anxieties I feel, and I just react to those external things? Yes precisely, and it is this reaction he is concerned with.

This reaction to external things is what causes our anxieties. This is our internal judgement. Our thinking. 

Bust of Marcus Aurelius (reign 161-180 CE)

He continues:

Second, that all these things you see will change almost as you look at them, and then will be no more. Constantly bring to mind all that you yourself have already seen changed. The universe is change: life is judgement. (Meditations, Book 4, p. 24)

That all the things we observe are constantly changing and passing away. So why let something cause you anxiety that has already changed? 


Lastly, in all this, he implies that if we could somehow understand this for ourselves, we may be free of those anxieties that otherwise normally beset us.

But how? I hear you ask.

At the beginning of this post, I said that we create our own anxieties. This upon first hearing, greets the ears as unwelcome news, and yet, if you consider it for a moment, it is not so, for, if we create anxiety, we can also possibly end it.  

 
After all, who wants to constantly be at the mercy of things, wildly thrown about like a ship upon windy seas.   
 
So, where do you begin?
Bronze Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius in Piazza del Campidoglio, Rome.  (Source: Enclycopedia Britannica)

Like the emperor Marcus Aurelius himself, by finding ‘your own little territory within yourself’, a place potentially free of tensions and agonies. 

 
I leave you with this.

That all is as thinking makes it so – and you control your thinking. So remove your judgements whenever you wish and then there is calm – as a sailor rounding the cape finds a smooth water and the welcome of a waveless bay. (Meditations, Book 12, p. 119)

 
References:

Aurelius, M (2006), Meditations. Translated by M. Hammond. Introduction by Diskin Clay. London: UK. Penguin Books

Second Image: Original image by Bibi Saint-Pol (Item in the public domain)