Premeditatio malorum - the premeditation of evils and troubles that might lie ahead. An ancient Stoic exercise of imagining things that could go wrong in the future so that we are better prepared for and less affected by them if they do happen. Because some of them will happen.
If you’ve been following my instagram page for a while, you know that I like to write about premeditatio malorum. And maybe you’ve also noticed that, every time I make a post about it, there are plenty of comments from people saying how it makes no sense. Nothing good can come out of thinking about what could go wrong in the future, they say. Only stress and anxiety.
The short and simple answer would be to say that they should learn to make a distinction between worrying about the future and thinking about it. There is a difference between letting fear and worry take over your mind, and consciously performing aa exercise of imagining different versions of the future so that you could be prepared for them.
A slightly longer but also simple answer would be to list and explain the 4 main benefits of premeditatio malorum. And that’s what I’m going to do in this essay.
1. Resilience
"Sickness assails those leading the most sensible lives, tuberculosis those with the strongest constitutions, retribution the utterly guiltless, violence the most secluded." Seneca
Some will say that life is not fair, others will say that life is neither fair nor unfair, it just is.
Whichever way you look at it, the fact is that no one can go through this life without their fair share of suffering and misfortune. It is often the case that there was absolutely nothing you could do to prevent it, and it is not rare that there is no way for you to change the situation once it happens. All that you can do is wait for the storm to pass. That is, unless you start panicking and drown as soon as the storm begins.
Going through life thinking that nothing bad can happen to you and that, if you just think positively, your whole life will be sunshine and rainbows, makes you the type of person who drowns as soon as the storm begins.
On the other hand, premeditatio malorum develops resilience. Let’s say you’ve been hit by life. You’ve been hit pretty hard. There was nothing you could do to prevent it. And the type of misfortune you find yourself in is not something that you can "fix." All you can do is take the hit. If you are a person who has kept in mind that these things are possible, you are able to take the hit. Sure, no one can ever be 100% ready for what life throws at them. But there is a big difference between a person who has been going through life wearing rose-colored glasses and one who is always aware that life consists of ups and downs. The first one will be knocked out by life. The latter one will take the hit and keep going.
2.Reaction
Sometimes, even though there was nothing you could do to prevent the misfortune, there is something you can do about it. You can react to it. You don’t need to and shouldn’t just wait for the storm to pass. You can navigate through it.
In April 2020, I got a message saying that having a normal life in my country was going to become impossible for me because there is probably a price on my head. I should make a plan for how to leave my job and start my life somewhere else. The further away, the better. Until then, I should leave my house only when absolutely necessary.
"Okay" was my answer. I am more nervous about meeting a group of new people than I was nervous back then, realizing that my whole life is about to change and that I have to navigate that change the best way I can. Not because I’m some super-tough guy or special in any way. It was solely because premeditatio malorum had been a part of my life for a couple of years at that point.
(You can read more about how I put Stoicism in practice in my essay “Why Having A Price On My Head Didn't Upset Me”)
If there is something that you can do about the misfortune that has struck you, how can you react properly, how can you think clearly, if you are paralyzed from the shock? If you’ve been going through life thinking that nothing bad can ever happen to you, and now you are not able to digest the struggle that you are facing, how do you expect to find a solution and implement it, even if it was right in front of you? You can’t.
3.Strategy
We said that, often, there is nothing you could do to prevent the trouble you find yourself in. Sometimes, there also isn’t anything you can do to fix it, and sometimes you can react and change your situation if you are able to stay calm and think clearly.
However, what if there was something you could do to prevent the troubles and misfortunes that might lie ahead?
What if there are certain things about the way you live your life that might be leading you towards those troubles and misfortunes?
And it doesn’t have to be that you are engaging in self-destructive behavior of any kind. It could be that you are finding yourself in situations and around people that might cause future troubles.
Maybe there is something that you could change about the way you think and act that could prevent, or at least minimize, the chance of some future troubles happening.
And guess what’s the way to recognize these things? Guess what’s the way to see that you need a different strategy of thinking and living if you are to change your potential future for the better?
Is it by believing that nothing good can come out of thinking about the future? Or is it maybe by making a conscious effort to think about what is it that could go wrong in your future and, out of those things, what is it that you could prevent?
4.Gratitude
If "everything will always be good," then surely there is nothing special about things being good now, right?
If happiness, peace, and good fortune are somehow guaranteed, then there is no need to feel any sort of gratitude for having them right now or at any point in your life, right?
This is my suggestion to you. At least for a moment, imagine that those Stoics were not that stupid after all. Imagine that there was some wisdom in what they were saying. It’s a crazy proposition, I know, but bear with me.
Take a moment to contemplate everything that can go wrong in this unpredictable journey we call human life. As soon as you start feeling overwhelmed by those thoughts, stop this thought exercise and look around.
Even if you feel like you are not at a high point in your life, even if you might already be facing troubles and difficulties, I’m sure there is something to be grateful for. And finding something to be grateful for becomes immensely easier after considering how much worse things could be.
Thank you for reading.
If you want to get the most out of your reading and even fall in love with it, download my free ebook “The Lost Art of Reading.”
If you like my work and get some value from it, there is zero-cost support in the form of subscribing, liking this post, commenting if you have any thoughts on it, and of course sharing this with anyone who would find it interesting.
Or you can consider becoming a paid supporter of Existential Espresso for 5$ per month. By doing this you would be helping me to keep investing time into researching and writing all the content on the daily basis.
What you get by becoming a paid supporter is access to the locked essays (such as “Why Having a Price on My Head Didn’t Upset Me”or “Why Living With a Bulletproof Vest is The Best Thing to Ever Happen to Me”), as well as an opportunity to recommend topics for future essays.
However, even taking the time out of your day to read what I have to share with you means more to me than you can imagine. Thank you.
I love your writings.