#Stoicism is about thinking first and determining the correct emotional response (if any emotion is even necessary).
In stoicism, reason and logic are the most important tools in the human arsenal.
Emotions exist, they just:
1. do not dictate actions
2. do not exclusively control or influence behavior or decision making.
Stoicism focuses on:
1. the control of "passions"; dysregulated, irrational and inefficient emotions
2. eliminating destructive emotions.
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What I was observing at 14 was that Jason and his group of psychopathic friends hyped up on way too much testosterone were not only really dangerously dysregulated but were also seemingly incapable of any rational thoughts.
In fact, most of my peers in middle school and high school were so terrifying to me because none of them seemed capable of thinking ... only feeling and then believing that feeling was the same as thinking.
But I meet adults who believe the same nonsense.
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Thinking and feeling are two separate things and should happen in a very specific order if one is going to claim to be a rational and healthy human being ...
A thought is a mental process about the outside world including ourselves as an entity of the greater world. An emotion is a response that happens primarily internally.
A thought is a PROCESS OF something, a feeling is a RESPONSE TO something.
A response should NEVER PRECEDE a process, that's not logical at all, that's madness.
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The less you think and know about yourself, the more easily you can be manipulated, groomed, and controlled by outside influence.
The less you think and understand about yourself, the more easily you will fall prey to destructive emotions.
If you think REACTIONS are the same as PROCESSES then I'd say you need to rethink a lot about what you think you know.
How you think and how you feel are two completely separate things. If you don't understand that ... you need to learn.
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Emotions will do their own thing and you are just along for the ride and you just are responding to where the emotions are taking you.
You can learn the patterns, you can develop a relationship with your emotions, but you cannot control them.
Navigating and riding emotions out is NOT the same as thinking, processing, and not allowing them to drag you everywhere.
All you're doing is holding on for dear life, pretending you're in control which is "bull"shit you tell yourself.
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Bull riding is abuse and so is what you do to yourself when you allow your emotions to dictate your actions and rule over your life.
You only hurt yourself and others.
You shouldn't be on the back of a bull in the first place.
You wouldn't be if you used reason and logic to understand yourself and the world around you and how your dysregulated actions inflict wounds on yourself and others.
And that Jason I was writing about is a racist, alt-right republican now ... big surprise there.
In my class I call this PBR - Process BEFORE Response and I help my students remember it by likening it to the actual PBR (Professional Bull Riders).
If you have ever seen professional bull riding you'll understand how I liken it to what I observe most people doing all the time ... they are just wildly riding emotions.
They believe they are in control of those emotions because they have experienced them so often but you really aren't in control at all.
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