Freedom from Anxiety
Anxiety arises from attachment to outcomes outside our control; focusing only on what is 'up to us' dissolves its root.
Anxiety is a future-oriented passion rooted in false belief that bad externals can befall us and that we cannot cope. Stoic practice addresses both: externals are indifferent, so none is genuinely terrible; and one's rational capacity to respond with virtue is always available. This dual insight cuts the root of chronic anxiety.
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it.
Stoic anxiety treatment is the direct ancestor of rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) developed by Albert Ellis.
Meditations
Written about in
- What Stoicism says about fear and anxiety
Anxiety needs two beliefs: that something bad can reach you, and that you could not handle it. The Stoic answer refuses both, since externals are not where your good sits and your judgement is always available.