The Hellenic term “ataraxia” speaks to the acute pain caused by uncertainty and a lack of autonomy, and offers a way forward. Instead of harnessing experiences – like parties or big trips – for happiness, ataraxia proposes a much more modest view.
If you are more tranquil, you will be less likely to react or combust.
Frequently described in Ancient Greek philosophy, including Epicurus. ataraxia is a state that is characterised by freedom from distress and worry. It is a mindset that is experienced and cultivated internally to achieve
tranquility.
Ataraxia should act like a slow-release drug, accumulating over days and weeks. Ancient philosophers believed achieving ataraxia created an emotional homeostasis, where the effect wouldn’t just be a more stable base-level mood, but one that would hopefully flow out to the people around you.
If you are more tranquil, you will be less likely to react or combust. So not only do you not ruin your own day, you avoid ruining other people’s too. In a tranquil state you may even make better decisions.
Someone in a state of ataraxia is not gripped by passions – such as lust, envy or fear. All these emotions are often spurred by things outside our control. It makes you OK with uncertainty and lack of control and help us cope with the shocks that await us in the future?
How achievable is ataraxia – particularly for a modern person who is surrounded by distraction, marketing, social media and capitalism? For a person who is easily swayed by passions? The answer is that ataraxia occurs in the absence of such passions – wanting things, getting them, then wanting more tends to create massive mood swings.
In a widely shared Medium post, Steven Gambardella wrote: “Ataraxia is not a positively-defined state such as ‘happy’ or ‘excited’. It was believed by the Hellenistic philosophies to be a ‘resting’ state of serenity. It is nevertheless a desirable state of mind, one that (Greek philosopher) Pyrrho believed human beings naturally possess but can easily lose. In the same way that when free of illness our bodies are in a state of homeostasis, ataraxia is simply the absence of perturbation.”
“In the modern world we are deeply unhappy because our understanding of happiness is incorrect. We think it will arise from doing something – from a positively designed state – drinking, having sex, shopping. This version of happiness is quite bound up with consumerism.”
Ancient Greek philosophers, such as the Epicureans, Stoics and Sceptics “taught that happiness is not a positively defined state – it is a negatively defined word. It’s ‘without being phased’, or having any kind of strong feelings – and the Ancient Greeks were obsessed with it.”
The theory of ataraxia “emerged at a time of crisis … in the chaos and bloodshed that followed Alexander’s (the Great) death”. It “is an objective for anybody seeking a sense of balance and calm, especially in times of uncertainty”.
Ataraxia is achieved by using reason to assess a situation rationally, to understand what you can control, and what you can’t control. What you cannot control is not worth worrying about.
Grayling says ataraxia can be achieved if you “have courage to face what is outside yourself, such as earthquakes, pandemics and natural disasters, old age and death. And if you have self mastery of your inner self.”
Techniques to achieve ataraxia also include “zooming out” – and seeing yourself and your problems as just small specks in a massive universe.”
“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”. (Marcus Aurelius)
In practical terms, “one of the main things we can do to try and achieve ataraxia is avoid social media. Instagram can make people feel sad and lonely. It is the perfect anti-ataraxia phenomenon. Because you could never be followed by enough people, you could never have enough likes – it’s based on this idea of super abundance … and it’s filled with notifications that you should follow this complete stranger.”
“People have very shallow ideas about what happiness is. For example – being in love. One of the great cons in life is that being in love is what happiness is about. Then five or 10 years later you wake up and go ‘who the hell is this person?’ If you are achieving a heightened emotional state that you get at a party or in infatuation – that is not happiness. Happiness is a state and the state in question is where you, the individual, have a firm basis and place to do the work you need to do; the grief you need to go through; the people you need to encounter and the help you need to give people around you.
( Partly from Brigid Delaney who hs written a book on Stoic philosophy published by Allen and Unwin)
