Stoicism 2 – Week 5: Practising mild hardship

Not yet trial-taught Not yet expert-reviewed

This week: practise the discipline of desire. Choose 2 days this week as "simple days": go without one small comfort you are used to, then ask yourself Seneca’s question. Each evening write a few lines about what you wanted more of.

Measurable goal: 2 simple days this week, and a desire journal on at least 5 of 7 evenings.

Important: this week there is no eating less, no fasting, no sleeping less, no exposure to cold or heat. Seneca speaks of eating plainly; this course does not practise that part.

1. Traditional teaching

[Traditional teaching] Stoicism teaches that many of our fears are fears of losing comfort, and that the way to fear less is to choose to live with a little less while things are still calm. Seneca wrote this during the Saturnalia festival, when all of Rome was feasting.

On wealth, Seneca writes near the end of the letter:

Reading it in context

• Seneca advises his friend to eat plainly for three or four days at a time. [Expert judgement] tamhonkhoe leaves food out of the exercise: restricting food can harm people with health conditions, people who are pregnant or breastfeeding, and people with a history of eating disorders. Seneca’s main point still works with other comforts.
• [Expert judgement] What Seneca aims at is not going hungry. He wants the learner to choose simple living, to see that we need less than we think and to fear loss less. For a healthy adult, the closest thing to that idea is eating simple, inexpensive food while still eating enough, not eating less. Food practice belongs to the Body courses, which list who should not follow it.
• Seneca himself says this is "nothing great", because many poor people live this way every day without choosing it. The exercise is about fearing loss less, not about looking down on poverty or feeling proud of oneself.
• Seneca does not say to give up wealth. He wants the learner to have it without being ruled by the fear of losing it.
• "Fortune" (Fortuna) is how Romans named what happens beyond our control.

2. What science finds

• [Verified] A meta-analysis of 33 studies of self-control training (practising small tasks that need restraint) found a small effect, smaller still after correcting for publication bias. (Friese et al. 2017)
• [Inference] This week’s exercise is not quite the same as the self-control training in those studies. We have not found a review that evaluates Seneca-style chosen mild hardship.

Limits: there is no direct scientific evidence for this week.

3. Practice for adults

About 20 minutes a day, plus 2 simple days in the week.

1. Slow reading (3 minutes, start of the week). Read the first passage. Copy out the question "Is this the condition that I feared?"
2. Choose 2 simple days. On each, choose 1–2 things from this list, or think of something similar: - buy nothing except essentials; - walk, cycle or take the bus for one short leg instead of a private vehicle (only if the route is safe and your health allows); - wear the plainest clothes you own; - skip paid entertainment and online shopping; - mend or reuse an old item instead of buying a new one.
3. Seneca’s question (on a simple day). When you miss a comfort, ask yourself: "Is this the condition that I feared?"
4. Desire journal (10–15 minutes, each evening). Write: what did I want more of today? Was it "necessary" or "already enough" (Week 4)? What was hard about the simple day, and what was easier than expected?
5. Tick it. At the end of the week check: did you have 2 simple days, and how many evenings did you write the journal (goal: at least 5 of 7)?

If you are genuinely short of money right now, skip step 2. Keep only an "enough" journal: each evening write one thing you have.

4. Kids' corner 6+

Game: "A toy on holiday" (5 minutes in the morning and 5 in the evening, with an adult)

1. Ask the child whether they would like to send one toy "on holiday" for a day. The child chooses the toy. If the child doesn’t want to, don’t push.
2. Put the toy in a box. The adult also puts away something of their own (for example their phone for an evening).
3. In the evening open the box and ask: "How was today without it? What did you play instead?"
4. No rewards, no punishments; just talk.

Do not use food, sweets or meals in this game.

5. Stop practising if

• You feel panic, have flashbacks of trauma, have a lasting sense that you or the world are "not real", lose sleep for several nights, or have thoughts of harming yourself.
• You feel an urge to eat less or skip meals, or you have a history of eating disorders and the reading brings it back. Then stop this week and talk to someone you trust or a doctor.
• A simple day harms the health or safety of you or someone you care for.
• If so, stop and see Get help now.

6. Foundation skills on daynentang

If the desire journal touches money worries, daynentang has a lesson: Solving problems step by step (in Vietnamese).

7. Practice for today

Pick your first simple day this week and write down what you will go without that day.

Science sources

• Friese M, et al. (2017). Does self-control training improve self-control? A meta-analysis. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(6), 1077–1099. doi:10.1177/1745691617697076