2nd June 2025
There is a wonderful 2000-year-old technique for
weathering life’s Storms.
In ancient Greece & Rome, many prominent thinkers subscribed to a philosophy called Stoicism.
As part of this philosophy, they practiced a thought exercise called
‘Premeditatio Malorum,’
which means premeditation of evils. It simply means taking a moment to think through
everything that could go wrong with a particular plan or life aspect.
It involves anticipating potential setbacks or losses in life and mentally preparing for them, rather than being caught off guard.
The idea behind ‘premeditatio malorum’ is that by contemplating calamity, we rob future hardships of their bite& appreciate what we have now.
In other words, anticipating adversity is likely to diminish its power on us when it actually strikes.
While premeditatio malorum involves anticipating potential difficulties, it’s important to distinguish it from catastrophizing, which is an unhealthy tendency to dwell on the worst-case scenarios.
The Stoic practice focuses on preparing for the worst while maintaining a balanced and rational perspective.
Meditating on the worst that may happen to us seems like a negative way to live life.
However, on the contrary, this exercise is calming, because it leads us to prepare ourselves mentally and otherwise to deal with an uncertain future & an adverse outcome.
Imagine another bout of deadly virus like Carona, or losing your job, or the stock market tanking and your investments getting wiped out, an adverse health diagnosis, etc.
Then, while letting the future happen, because anyways you can’t control it, try doing things that may keep you at a safe distance from these possibilities as much as possible.
In particular, while practicing ‘premeditatio malorum,’ the Stoics frequently reminded themselves that both they and their loved ones were mortal, and bound to die one day, and that life was inevitably transient.
This is one of the best ways we can indulge in this thought practice, by meditating on mortality.
As the Stoic philosopher Seneca advised –”Let us prepare our minds as if we’d come to the very end of life. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life’s books each day. The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time.”
This practice is not meant to foster anxiety or worry. Rather, it’s meant to promote preparedness and resilience against life’s inevitable vicissitudes.
Having anticipated challenges and being fortunate enough to have not met them is extra sweet.
Having anticipated challenges and then having met and overcome them is even sweeter & helps you stay blessed forever.