The Flinch: What to Do With the First Jolt of Anger or Anxiety

"For no wisdom can natural weakness of the body be removed.

That which is implanted and inborn can be toned down by training, but not overcome." And then a little further on, "The steadiest speaker when before the public often breaks into perspiration as if he had wearied or overheated himself.

Some tremble in the knees when they rise to speak." Notice who Seneca is describing there, people who are good at this.

The blush still comes.

The sweat still comes.

Training tones it down.

He says it does not switch off.

That matters because of how the Stoics thought the mind worked.

Something appears, you agree or you don't.

You either assent to the impression, you withhold it, or you disagree with it.

Then comes the urge, then the action.

The first jolt in your body belongs to that first step.

It happens to you.

It isn't something that you're agreeing to yet.

So the flinch, that first movement, the jolt, is not the problem.

The problem is treating the flinch as a fully formed verdict.

"My heart's pounding, so this must be a threat." Wrong.

"I'm furious, so therefore I must be right." Wrong.

That second part, that's the moment you sign for it, and that part is the thing that needs to be questioned.

I call this principle the gap.

Between the jolt and what you do next, there is a step, and that step is yours.

But you can't use a gap that you can't see.