Stoicism
Posted: Sat May 21, 2022 10:03 pm
Some of you may be aware of the 'No Surprise, No Accident ' campaign that Spin helped develop.
https://www.facebook.com/NoSurpriseUK/
https://nosurprise.org.uk/
Part of the NS philosophy is that however well you plan and ride, things can still go wrong. And, along with that, most bike crashes are 'unusual' occurrence, bikers are typically boring and horribly predictable, with just a few different crash types used most of the time.
Along with that, if you know those crash types then you can physically and mentally rehearse for them.
Sometimes - particularly the high risk situations - mental rehearsal. 'Visualisation' is the way to do that. A modern technique? Hmmmm ....
Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century BC. It is a philosophy of personal eudaemonic virtue ethics informed by its system of logic
And ...
the great Stoic philosophers like Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus and Seneca. And they had an even better name for it: premeditatio malorum (premeditation of evils).
“Practice premeditatio malorum (a premeditation of evils). Everyone talks about positive visualization. The stoics practice negative visualization. Think about what could go wrong, accept that it is a possibility, prepare for it, proceed anyway. Don’t be caught by surprise by misfortune, be ready for it.”
Ah well, nothing new under the Sun.
But that doesn't detract from the principle and its benefits.
https://www.facebook.com/NoSurpriseUK/
https://nosurprise.org.uk/
Part of the NS philosophy is that however well you plan and ride, things can still go wrong. And, along with that, most bike crashes are 'unusual' occurrence, bikers are typically boring and horribly predictable, with just a few different crash types used most of the time.
Along with that, if you know those crash types then you can physically and mentally rehearse for them.
Sometimes - particularly the high risk situations - mental rehearsal. 'Visualisation' is the way to do that. A modern technique? Hmmmm ....
Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century BC. It is a philosophy of personal eudaemonic virtue ethics informed by its system of logic
And ...
the great Stoic philosophers like Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus and Seneca. And they had an even better name for it: premeditatio malorum (premeditation of evils).
“Practice premeditatio malorum (a premeditation of evils). Everyone talks about positive visualization. The stoics practice negative visualization. Think about what could go wrong, accept that it is a possibility, prepare for it, proceed anyway. Don’t be caught by surprise by misfortune, be ready for it.”
Ah well, nothing new under the Sun.
But that doesn't detract from the principle and its benefits.
)
