School, COVID, & The Dichotomy of Control — Finding Equanimity
This blog post was originally published on The Stoic Student
COVID cases continue to soar, schoolwork is piling on, and I don’t know when things will get back to normal. As always, when I feel anxious, I turn to the Stoics. Although it may seem as if the Stoics are disconnected from our modern-day problems, their experiences are more similar to ours than one may think: Marcus Aurelius lived during a pandemic, all the Stoics were avid students, and they couldn’t predict the future either.
So, how did they deal with the capricious nature of our world? They asked themselves a question: what is under my control?
When we ask ourselves this essential question, we can sort between the things we have control over (and can improve) and those that we don’t have control over (and will not change no matter what we do).
A practical example is when my teacher “unfairly” assigns me a test for the next day, which I am not prepared for. One response would be to groan and spend the night complaining about my professor and never begin to study. But, what is under my control? I can’t control the way that my teacher assigns tests, and I won’t change his/her mind by complaining about it. However, I can control how much I study for the test. I can control whether I get a good night’s sleep before the test. I can control whether I eat a nutritious breakfast. Focus on what you can control and success will follow.
There are many things out of our hands. However, there’s always one thing that is under our control: how we respond.
So, as the coronavirus slows the world to a halt, and we’re restricted from what we want to do while working through excessive school work and having way too much on our plate, remember this: look inward to your anxieties, find what is in your control and separate it from what is out of your control. In time, you will find equanimity.
A lot of stupid stuff is going to happen to all of us. Some of us may have it worse than others. But, who cares? You cannot control the things that life throws your way, but you can ALWAYS control how you react to it.
How will you apply this lesson to your life? Let us know in the comments below.
