View this post on the web at [link removed]

Recently, there’s been growing alarm about the shocking increase [ [link removed] ] in mental illness among young people. To account for this change, scholars have raised understandable concerns about the potential effects of social media, [ [link removed] ] COVID lockdowns [ [link removed] ] and the overprotection of children [ [link removed] ]. But something else may also be a factor: People seem to be losing touch with wisdom from the past.
Classic texts—those that are widely considered as being part of a “canon”—have countless insights into well-being that are still relevant today. But as education focuses more on identity politics than on imparting knowledge, this material is being taught less and less. It doesn’t help that most classics have a socially conservative ethos, that almost all were written by men and that many of the most influential texts in the U.S. come from the Western tradition. Now many educators are scrubbing these books from curricula [ [link removed] ]. As a result, many of the teachings that were well-known in previous generations are gradually being forgotten.
These texts aren’t just beautiful and historically important. They are useful. Some concepts from this literature have even been used to develop psychotherapies, such as Plato’s model of the psyche [ [link removed] ] or the writings of the Stoics [ [link removed] ]. But, as helpful as these therapies can be, it would probably be better if the concepts on which they’re based were still taught in schools and maintained in the broader culture.
Obviously, it’s impossible to summarize all the wisdom of the classics, but a few principles keep recurring. They’re found in both Western and Eastern classics, and many are supported by current peer-reviewed psychological literature. They’re core principles for health, fulfillment and well-being that seem to transcend culture and time. And by reading the texts that expound these principles, we’ll be equipped with tools that can help us lead happier, less stressful lives.
Living Life With Balance
The Greek philosopher Hippocrates (c. 410 B.C.) advocated against “all things in excess.” To his thinking, excess is a common source of both mental and physical illness. Excessive eating or excessive dieting, excessive laziness or excessive exercise, excessive rumination or excessive avoidance—each could play a role in throwing the body or the psyche out of balance.
A similar teaching is reflected in a Chinese classic text, the Tao Te Ching (c. 4th century B.C.). “Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.” The language is different, but the point is the same: Maintain balance. Avoid leaning too far to one side or the other. Keep to the middle path.
This sentiment is common in many contemporary approaches to therapy. For example, dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) [ [link removed] ] encourages people to think “dialectically”—that is, to keep both sides in mind. People can develop problems if they see weaknesses in themselves but not strengths (or vice versa), if they connect to emotion but not rational thinking (or vice versa), or if they’re unwilling to change or unwilling to accept things they can’t change. Dialectical thinking is a subtle and complex concept, but the simplest framing is to focus on balancing between both sides without getting swept up into either extreme. It’s a widely practiced approach to therapy and has its roots in psychoanalysis (especially the work of eminent psychoanalyst Melanie Klein [ [link removed] ]).
It's easy to see how this concept could apply to multiple domains of life. Healthy relationships usually need a balance between closeness and independence. They also need balance between the needs of each person. Sexual fulfillment usually requires a balance between desire on the one hand and intimacy and attachment on the other. The same could apply to finances, media consumption, career goals, and a practice of meditation or prayer.
Acknowledging That Experiences Come and Go
The Book of Ecclesiastes famously states, “To everything there is a season.” There are times for peace and times for war, times for happiness and times for sadness. Put another way, our lives involve the full range of experiences, and we can expect them all to come and go in their time.
A similar sentiment is expressed in the Buddhist concept of anicca [ [link removed] ], the idea that everything in the world changes. Relationships change. Personalities change. Life circumstances change. Emotions and thoughts change. Each situation requires a different response. Getting through it all requires flexibility.
This is true in psychology, too. The human brain and nervous system are built to feel every emotion. We can expect all of them to come and go over the course of our lives. We feel an emotion, respond as needed and then, when it’s time, let it go.
One prominent approach to psychotherapy, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) [ [link removed] ], takes the same view. It posits that mental illness can arise when people won’t let themselves feel what they feel or won’t let their emotions go when it’s time. Attempts to feel no anxiety, no stress, no fatigue, no sadness or no anger are likely to cause problems because these feelings are part of life. It’s equally a problem when people don’t respond emotionally to situations that call for it, or when they don’t let things go when it’s time.
Connecting to Good Qualities and Good Actions
Plato thought there was a higher power, “the Good,” that is the ultimate source of good qualities—things like love, wisdom, honesty, compassion, patience, courage, integrity, duty, humility, forgiveness and so on. Most religions also conceive of such a power, which may be concentrated in one or more deities (e.g., Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism). And both Plato and these faiths see a connection to these positive qualities as the ultimate source of fulfillment.
Aristotle reflected a similar sentiment, arguing in his “Nicomachean Ethics [ [link removed] ]” that happiness and personal fulfillment come from the practice of virtue. This idea is highlighted in the Gospels’ emphasis on the healing power of selfless love, and it’s reflected inversely in the Buddhist noble truth that suffering comes from selfish desire. This belief is also apparent in aspects of the “positive psychology [ [link removed] ]” movement, which focuses in part on helping people thrive through positive qualities and experiences.
Usually, these thinkers argue that connecting to good qualities can’t be done through the ego. Instead, it comes from surrender, from a source beyond the self and the mind, from the heart. Seen in this light, feelings and experiences come and go, but amidst all these changes, good qualities and actions are what bring enduring well-being. They can teach, guide, inspire and heal.
This idea can apply to every area of life. Meaningful connections with others require good qualities such as gratitude, authenticity, assertiveness and forgiveness. These qualities are important for fulfilling careers and families. They help people weather anxiety, stress, depression, anger, loss and fatigue. And they can help people avoid pursing things that are more likely to make them suffer in the long term, such as envy, revenge, narcissism and hollow desires.
Avoiding Distorted Self-Talk
Most psychiatric diagnoses are related in some way to distorted self-talk. Depressed people may have an internal monologue telling them they’re bad at everything, the world is bad or everything is hopeless. People with dysregulated anger can believe others don’t care about them and won’t listen to anything but force. Anxious people can spiral into thinking that nothing is safe. People with addictive behaviors can spiral too, rationalizing why it’s okay to do the addictive behavior just one more time.
This internal voice can be incredibly seductive. It often claims to offer the unvarnished truth or the best solutions to problems. It can be especially appealing at times of high stress or late at night. At our worst moments, it can become even stronger and more destructive. But in the light of day, most people are able to recognize how misleading and counterproductive this self-talk is.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT [ [link removed] ]) is a modern therapeutic approach that focuses on distorted self-talk. If people can recognize their self-talk and become aware of how distorted and counterproductive it is, they can sometimes avoid getting sucked in. Even if they can’t stop it entirely, awareness of it can weaken its hold. CBT doesn’t argue that people should always think happy thoughts or ignore problems, but it observes that these extremes of self-talk are usually unrealistic and counterproductive.
While some proponents of CBT (like Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck [ [link removed] ]) have explicitly linked it to Stoicism, many traditions around the world address the issue of distorted self-talk. The most common representation of this process in Western art and mythology is related to demons or the devil. The prototypical image of the devil is a whisperer—seductive but misleading. He spreads the darkness of distortion, leads people astray and stabs at people’s hearts with his pitchfork. He often sits on people’s shoulders or grinds them down. He’s arrogant, claims knowledge that turns out to be false, and promotes unhealthily grasping, possessive attachments. When we observe those signs in ourselves, our self-talk has drifted into a distorted spiral.
Similar phenomena are represented in Eastern traditions through the motif of the “monkey mind.” This image frames the undisciplined mind as wild, often mimicking behaviors it has seen in others. Taming the monkey mind requires wisdom and awareness; otherwise, people can rush to conclusions, make assumptions, take things personally that aren’t, slip into perfectionism or make other errors in judgment that can contribute to life problems.
Applying the Four Principles
To be fair, none of these teachings are easy to put into practice. It takes time to build awareness, develop habits and get the knack of them. Mistakes should be expected. And these principles aren’t so much rigid requirements as rules of thumb. Ultimately, they can only really be understood by doing them.
It’s inevitable that people will face challenges, get stuck or lost, or need help or guidance in some other way. When people do get stuck, they often suffer a loss of perspective, unconscious dynamics or idiosyncratic concerns that can’t be addressed in any list like this. These are all reasons why people seek guidance at different times in their lives, often from a therapist.
But really, these four principles are just a small taste of the wisdom that’s been passed down through the ages. As people go deeper into these teachings and the wisdom traditions they come from, they’re likely to learn more and more. But if people lose touch with the wisdom to be gleaned from these ancient texts, it shouldn’t surprise us that more people are struggling with mental health and well-being. There might be a lot of things wrong with our current cultural moment, but it will be hard to effectively address any of them if we can’t reconnect to wisdom that reorients us toward more sustainable and fulfilling lifestyles.

Unsubscribe [link removed]?