{"id":19590,"date":"2020-06-05T09:00:16","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T16:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=19590"},"modified":"2020-06-05T09:27:14","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T16:27:14","slug":"the-examined-life-coping-with-covid-a-stoic-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2020\/06\/05\/the-examined-life-coping-with-covid-a-stoic-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"The Examined Life<\/em>: Coping with COVID: a stoic perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are very fortunate to be living on Vancouver Island in the midst of this pandemic, as we benefit from the natural geographic isolation an island affords. We find ourselves in one of the safest places to be as restrictions start relaxing and the city slowly reopens. Still, some may find it difficult to resume daily life, and there is, of course, still cause for caution. As we\u2019re being warned, there will very likely be a second wave, and there is no way of knowing how fortunate we will be the second time around.<\/p>\n

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The Examined Life<\/em> is a column appearing in every issue of Nexus<\/em> (photo by Ethan Badr\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So, what can we do to prepare? Well, by now we should all be experienced in physical-distancing and sanitary procedures. And it\u2019s important to keep those skills handy going forward. What we can do now is prepare ourselves mentally during this break in tension. COVID-19 has caused a great deal of anxiety and grief. It has left many feeling helpless and defeated. And why? Because people naturally strive for control, even when faced with the uncontrollable. For a long time, I constantly fixated on the past and worried about the future. I was controlled by that anxiety. Eventually I realized I was doing something wrong.<\/p>\n

Stoicism espouses the idea that we ought to relinquish control of things external to ourselves. That is, we should only concern ourselves with those things that really are within our control. And, as it turns out, our minds and bodies are about all we have true control over. We can\u2019t change the damage caused by COVID-19, so we shouldn\u2019t fixate on it. We can\u2019t control whether or not the second wave will come to the island, so we shouldn\u2019t worry or create anxiety around it. In the words of Epictetus, \u201cThe more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.\u201d It is only ourselves in this moment that we control, and that\u2019s where our attention should be placed. Let us be cautious but also enjoy this reprieve while it is here. Let us grieve for those we have lost, but not be drowned in that sorrow. Let us prepare for the future but live here in the now. That\u2019s where I\u2019ll be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are very fortunate to be living on Vancouver Island in the midst of this pandemic, as we benefit from the natural geographic isolation an island affords. We find ourselves in one of the safest places to be as restrictions start relaxing and the city slowly reopens. Still, some may find it difficult to resume […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19591,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19590\/revisions\/19591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}