The Vulnerability of Dependence

I've been reading The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman this past year.  The book is a daily devotional that couples a short passage from one of the ancient Stoic philosophers with a short explanation or example from modern times.  One of the recent passages referred to the following passage from Seneca's Moral Letters:  

"Show me someone who isn't a slave!  One is a slave to lust, another to greed, another to power, and all are slaves to fear...No servitude is more abject than the self-imposed."

The accompanying explanation from Holiday and Hanselman talks about the "Vulnerability of Dependence" - we are all addicted to our routines, our comfort, or even someone else's approval.  Unfortunately, these dependencies (or addictions) mean that we're not in control of our own lives.

The Stoic philosopher Epictetus said, "Anyone who truly wants to be free, won't desire something that is actually in someone else's control, unless they want to be a slave."  All of the things that provide us comfort - the hot shower we take every morning, the coffee we drink on the way to work, or the down comforter that keeps us warm at night when we are sleeping - can be taken away from us at any moment.  Our daily routines can be disrupted by an unexpected event.  We may show up to work and find out that our boss is leaving for another opportunity.  The doctor may tell us that we need to lose weight and drink less wine.  All of this can happen and more.

The Stoics strengthened themselves by testing their dependencies before they became too great.  For example, have you ever decided to take a break from your morning coffee for a week?  I know a couple who stops drinking wine for the entire month of November.  I have another colleague who takes a cold shower every morning.  As I wrote in the post "Hit the showers - and make it a cold one!", several ancient philosophers (not just the Stoics) practiced self-denial or voluntary discomfort in order to "quiet their appetites for material goods" and help them better appreciate all of the things that they had in their life.  Here we have the ancient version of "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger."  

I found out that one of my former high school classmates practices the Wim Hof method, which consists of deep breathing techniques, meditation, and frequent cold exposure.  The "cold exposure" aspect consists of cold showers and ice baths.  Hof claims, "We have become alienated from nature, but the cold is capable of bringing us back to what we once had lost."  I am not suggesting or advocating for this particular method (it's personally too extreme for me).  However, several months ago I did start turning off the hot water for a few minutes at the end of my morning shower and it felt great!

My point is that we should not become too dependent on all the comforts of modern life.  Our dependence on these comforts makes us more vulnerable.  We run the risk of getting seriously off track when if or when they are taken away.  We can practice to live without these comforts through periodic self-denial and voluntary discomfort.