Stoicism and Emotions / Decision-Making

Hey everyone in Coping w/ emotions:

I have an interesting idea that I got from a ted talk.

Some people say that Stoicism, an ancient philosophy stemming from Greek philosophers, is gaining traction today.

I am not here to promote Stoicism, but rather, I would like to write about an idea that this philosophy / ted talk gave me.

It's called fear-setting.

If it sounds scary, it's not supposed to be.

Fear-setting is like goal-setting, but for your major decisions, and involves seeing what your main fears are for your main challenges.

For example, I could be deciding whether or not to move to a foreign country. My main fear, then, could be, what if I get sick there, or something like that.

Identifying your fears like this is supposed to help you cope better with strong emotions like anxiety and also help you make decisions. I won't drone on any longer because I realize this post is getting really long.


Thoughts?

p.s. also if you want the link to the ted talk, I can send that along (just send me a pm).

Thank you so much for sharing that. There is so much truth in it.

An interesting thing I learned from someone is called "cognitive flooding."

It consists of repeating a "core fear" over and over again.

When repeating a "core fear" the first emotion is usually anxiety. After repeating the core fear, anxiety often gives way to boredom.

After many, many repetitions, boredom can even give way to laughter.

I have tried this and it works for me. I find it quite amazing really.

The idea is instead of trying to block or flee a core fear, to run towards it and embrace it. This is counter intuitive but seems to help many people.

I have had a core fear of getting Alzheimer's Disease and being at the mercy of others who might abuse me. The core fear is losing control and being harmed and being unable to do anything about the harm.

By repeating this fear over and over, I find I can disarm it.

I have recently begun experiencing fears about the COVID-19. Cognitive flooding is helping me with that.

Of course what works for some people doesn't work for others. I realize that.

I am so glad you have found something that helps you and am grateful that you have shared in here.

Thanks for sharing that!

I am experiencing fears about COVID-19 as well.

I believe what you shared about the cognitive flooding thing is interesting, too.

My father is a big fan of stoicism and I was brought up to make decisions based on logic and evidence. I rarely, but still do, make decisions based on emotion or fears. I'm pretty sure that my upbringing contributes to my lack of emotional range today. I find that it makes my life much more stable. I still have fun and crave excitement, but at least I don't cause a lot of drama even though drama finds me.

Stoicism for me has been spot on. It helps me in my everyday life immensely.
Once I take the emotion out of the equation I begin to use a part of my brain which hitherto never seemed to exist. My prefrontal cortex. Logic and reason win the day for me. Fears can be driven off , and decision making becomes a doable exercise. Mindfulness is what works for me best.
Staying in the moment. I have to realize too that I have very little control over much of other people and life in general.
Best to all.......

I find myself to me a mix of anxious and stoicism. Depending on the situation I can look at some with evidence and consideration. Other situations I'm a whirlwind of panic. Thanks for posting this thread. It was interesting to read.