
lynneeveratt
Confront Crisis Like a Stoic
In his final 30 seconds of freedom on September 9th, 1965 as James Bond Stockdale's parachute opened and he descended into the Vietnamese village that would be the site of his capture, he thought to himself: “I'm leaving the world of technology and entering the world of Epictetus.” Stockdale studied philosophy as a graduate student at Stanford, specifically the teachings of the ancient Greek stoic philosopher Epictetus. Everything that Stockdale knew about stoicism would be put to the test as he spent 7.5 years in the “Hanoi Hilton,” the infamous Vietnamese prison where he was subjected to torture, leg irons, and solitary confinement. Stockdale's experience has much to teach us about flattening the curve of our mental health that appears to be spiking at the moment with a third of Americans reporting signs of clinical depression and/or anxiety and many filling new prescriptions for anti-anxiety and anti-depressant medications. The focus of this week's 5-Minute Recharge newsletter is on non-medicinal strategies that have endured for over 2,000 years, ways of thinking and behaving that will help you deal with the stresses of a chaotic world. Let's get started! ONE QUOTE FROM A GOOD FELLA “What I look forward to in the future is carrying with me what I have been forced to learn in these circumstances. It is the essential. The people you love.” – Director Martin Scorsese, from his home-made short film about his pandemic experience
