Stoicism 4 – Week 5: The circles of concern

Not yet trial-taught Not yet expert-reviewed

This week: draw your circles of concern, from the inside out. Each day, do one small thing for someone in an outer circle, as if drawing them one circle closer: a neighbour you rarely greet, a colleague in another department, a stranger who needs directions.

Measurable goal: one small thing for someone in an outer circle each day, on at least 5 of 7 days.

1. Traditional teaching

[Traditional teaching] Stoicism teaches that all people share one rational nature, so we belong to the community of humankind, not only to our family or our city.

Hierocles, a Stoic of the 2nd century CE, left a famous image for this idea. His work survives only in fragments copied by Stobaeus.

Marcus Aurelius says the same thing another way:

Reading it in context

• The parts left out […] list the circles in between. In Taylor’s translation they run, from the inside out: one’s own mind (with the body); parents, brothers and sisters, spouse and children; uncles and aunts, grandparents, nephews and nieces; other relatives; the common people; those of the same tribe; fellow citizens; those living near the city; those of the same province; and finally the whole human race.
• Hierocles wrote for a male reader of his time, so the second circle names a "wife". The course reads it as a spouse, whoever the reader is.
• Later in the same section Hierocles admits that "something of benevolence must be taken away" from more distant relatives, while still trying to bring them closer. He does not ask us to treat everyone exactly alike; he asks us to shorten the distance.
• "Antoninus" is Marcus Aurelius’s name as emperor. His line does not tell anyone to give up their homeland: he still carried out the duties of a Roman emperor, while remembering that he was one person among all people.
• [Expert judgement] Drawing the outer circles closer does not mean neglecting the inner ones. Hierocles starts from oneself and one’s family; caring for distant people does not replace looking after yourself and those at home.
• This exercise is about small everyday actions; it does not discuss politics or nations.

2. What science finds

• [Verified] A systematic review of volunteering (40 papers): cohort studies found volunteers had less depression and greater life satisfaction; pooling 5 cohort studies, volunteers had a lower risk of death (RR = 0.78; 95% CI 0.66–0.90). This is a correlation: randomised trials have not confirmed these benefits. (Jenkinson et al. 2013)
• [Verified] A meta-analysis of 27 experimental studies with 4,045 people: doing kind things for others raised the well-being of those who did them by a small-to-moderate amount; the studies are often small. (Curry et al. 2018)
• [Inference] Neither study measured Hierocles’ "circles" exercise. The main aim of the exercise is that the other person is cared for, not a benefit to the practitioner.

3. Practice for adults

About 15 minutes the first time, a few minutes each day.

1. Read (first time, 3 minutes). Read the two passages from Hierocles and Marcus’s passage.
2. Draw your circles (10 minutes, once). Draw 5–7 concentric circles on a sheet of paper. Write names or groups in each: yourself; family; relatives and close friends; colleagues and neighbours; people in your city; people far away.
3. One action each day. Choose someone in an outer circle and do one small thing: greet the building’s security guard and learn their name; help a colleague from another department; give directions to a stranger; pick up litter in a shared walkway; message a relative you have not contacted for a long time.
4. One line (2 minutes, evening). Whom did I draw one circle closer today? Draw a small arrow on your sheet.
5. Keep the inner circles. Still make time each day for yourself and your family. If you are tired this week, a greeting is enough.

4. Kids' corner 6+

Game: "My circles" (5–10 minutes, with an adult)

1. Draw 3 circles, one inside another. In the middle the child draws themselves; in the second circle the people at home; in the outer circle the people they often see: their teacher, classmates, the shopkeeper, the security guard.
2. Ask: "In the outer circle, who would you like to do something kind for?"
3. The child chooses one small thing: greeting the security guard, drawing a picture for their teacher, inviting a new friend to play.
4. The adult goes along when the child does it. Don’t make the child talk to strangers if they feel shy.

5. Stop practising if

• You feel panic, have traumatic flashbacks, a lasting sense that you or the world are "not real", many sleepless nights, or thoughts of harming yourself.
• Caring for others is wearing you out or making you neglect yourself and your family. Then go back to the inner circles first.
• Someone in an outer circle behaves suspiciously or makes you feel unsafe. Staying safe matters more than the exercise.
• In that case stop practising and see Get help now.

6. Foundation skills on daynentang

daynentang has a lesson with things a family can do together for the place they live: Cả nhà giúp cộng đồng (The whole family helps the community; in Vietnamese).

7. Practice for today

Write the name of someone in one of your outer circles and one small thing you will do for them today.

Science sources

• Jenkinson CE, Dickens AP, Jones K, Thompson-Coon J, Taylor RS, Rogers M, Bambra CL, Lang I, Richards SH (2013). Is volunteering a public health intervention? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the health and survival of volunteers. BMC Public Health, 13, 773. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-13-773
• Curry OS, Rowland LA, Van Lissa CJ, Zlotowitz S, McAlaney J, Whitehouse H (2018). Happy to help? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of performing acts of kindness on the well-being of the actor. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 76, 320–329. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2018.02.014