Stoics thought that knowing physics is essential to developing ethics; they believed that understanding how the world works is important to learning how to live. After all, if you don’t know the basics of how the world behaves, how can you find your place in it?

The ancient Stoics were pantheists—that is, they thought that God was the same thing as the universe. The God/universe was made of matter and regulated by cause and effect. In a sense, the cosmos itself was a living organism, and whatever it was doing was for its own benefit. However, since we are literally bits and pieces of the God/universe, we

the Stoic premeditatio’s goal is to loosen our attachment to external events in general, from something as simple as breaking your favorite cup (to use Epictetus’s example from Week 3) to the death of a loved one. Since you’re only doing this for a day, we do not recommend starting with a serious situation.

Method 3: Practice imaginative premeditation The final take on premeditatio malorum is to imagine a situation you wouldn’t want to happen as if it’s actually happening. This approach is similar to imaginal exposure, a type of exposure therapy used to help people overcome their anxieties.

Whenever you encounter something unfortunate happening to someone else, whether it be in person, on the news, or on social media, take a moment to remind yourself that it could happen to you as well.

Method 2: Premeditate on others’ adversity. Now we’re shifting gears. So far this week you have focused on your own experiences. Today we’re expanding the power of premeditatio malorum to internalize the reality that you may be subject to unexpected misfortunes that happen to others.

Use this table to strategize how you can respond Stoically if things go wrong. Try this for up to three of your plans for the day.

This exercise, like many future exercises in this book, is bolstered by a technique called implementation intentions, which are a well-studied, effective way to increase the chances that you will remember to do something in a specific situation.1 Instead of intending to do something, tell yourself under what circumstances you will do it.

Method 1: Plan for things to go wrong. We’ll start this exercise by writing out a few plans for the day. Then we’ll assume that what could go wrong will.