The Stoic Magazine Library

Stoicism, a philosophy of resilience

The Stoics never wrote of resilience as such, but they could have. It seems to me that the purpose of their philosophy is precisely that: to build resilience.

Can I trust my team if they’re working from home? Can I empower someone without me losing some of my power? These are some of the questions that managers have been asking me to help them think about recently.

This morning, I met my bank’s branch manager as I was taking a walk. I asked him how he was doing: he sighed and said that times were really hard. The effects of the COVID-19 crisis are starting to affect his clients, entrepreneurs in the area of Paris I live in.

British poet and author Kate Clanchy recently wrote in The Guardian about her experience of helping her parents die a good death, in the midst of a pandemic where dying is portrayed as the worst of all ills.

“Between the initial impulse and our reaction, there is a small amount of time during which we can use reason to decide what we are going to do about it.”