August 07, 2026

Expect To Be Jostled

When you are going about any action, remind yourself what nature the action is. If you are going to bathe, put before your mind what happens in the bath: the splashing of the water, the crowding, the abusive language, and the thieving. And thus you will more safely go about this action if you say to yourself at once: I will now go bathe, and keep my own mind in a state conformable to nature. And so with regard to every other action. For thus, if anything happens to hinder you in bathing, you will be able to say, I did not wish to bathe only, but also to keep my mind in a state conformable to nature; and I shall not keep it so, if I am vexed at things that happen.

Epictetus, once enslaved in Rome and later a respected teacher in Nicopolis, distilled his daily lessons into the Enchiridion, a short manual meant to be reread until its habits became instinct. Here he takes something as ordinary as a trip to the public baths, crowded, splashing, full of short tempers and petty theft, and turns it into a training ground for the mind. Before he goes he pictures the exact irritations he is likely to meet, so that when they appear he can meet them with a plan already formed rather than lose his footing. This is premeditatio malorum in its most practical form: rehearsing friction in advance so it arrives as an expected guest rather than an ambush. Marcus Aurelius practiced this same exercise each morning, and Seneca did it before travel and even before meals, treating every ordinary act as a chance to prepare the mind first.

A principle of Stoicism: Premeditatio Malorum →