This week, you’ll build on the skill of catching your impressions that you cultivated last week, but will counter those impressions in a different way. Instead of applying the dichotomy of control after catching an impression, you’ll examine and question the judgments that underlie them. You’ll be adding something to last week’s exercise by working with impulses as well. As we described last week, agreeing or assenting to certain types of impressions can lead to the impulse to act. So, not only will this week’s exercise tackle your desires and aversions, and consequently your emotions, but it will help you regulate your actions, too.

This may sound abstract, so let’s examine this process in more detail, using the example of Tekanyo at the doctor’s office, to better understand how to apply the upcoming exercises. In Stoic psychology, this scenario would break down into several steps.

1. Implicit inclinations to pleasure, desire for externals, or aversions to externals, lead to “impressions” about them—that is, automatic thoughts and the initial stirrings of feeling. Since Tekanyo hates waiting and desires fast doctor visits, he is inclined to produce automatic thoughts and feelings in this situation that could lead to full-blown anger.
2. Impressions begin to surface. While Tekanyo is waiting, automatic thoughts and the beginnings of anger arise in his mind. These “impressions,” as Marcus conceives them, may include: “I shouldn’t have to wait this long,” “the office staff is incompetent (and their incompetence is bad),” and so on. Feelings may include anger or annoyance. These automatic thoughts are beyond Tekanyo’s complete control.
3. A person can then choose to agree with these automatic thoughts and feelings, reject them, or suspend judgment. If Tekanyo agrees with his impressions, he has “assented” to them. This would lead to full-blown anger. Assent, however, is completely within Tekanyo’s control, according to the Stoics.
4. Assenting to impressions about appropriate action leads to acting on the impressions. For example, if the thought (which isn’t under his control) that it’s appropriate to yell at people who are incompetent or waste his time arises in Tekanyo and he assents to it (which is under his control), then he’ll go and angrily yell at the office staff. This is the “impulse.”

The first part of this week’s exercise is to uncover the underlying assumptions about what’s really good and bad that lead to passions, using logic. (If you need a refresher on what things the Stoics think are really good and bad, you may want to reread the Introduction, as well as Week 9.)

The practice to gain “a sound grammar of assent” is simple: Every time you feel the stirrings of a strong aversion or desire, ask yourself what you are presuming is good or evil in this case. If you discover that you desire or are averse to an external, find reasons that it’s not really a good, and remember that you should instead focus on your character.

To help you warm up, imagine yourself in the following situations, and complete the chart below. 

To print a blank version of this exercise, please go to our web page for the book: theexperimentpublishing.com/?isbn=9781615195336.

Situation	What is presumed to be “good” or “bad” in this case?	What could you say to yourself to counter the impression?
Example: Getting angry at a long wait at the doctor’s office	The presumption of others wasting my time (bad)	It’s not a waste of time if I work with my impressions, since that matters more. Besides, it’s my choice to be here. I can simply walk out. Should I?
Being sad after an injury limits your daily functioning
Getting a food craving, even though you’re not hungry
Getting anxious about what someone else thinks of you
Being happy about being praised

Now that you’re warmed up, write an implementation intention or two to help you remember to work with impressions that could lead to passions.

The second part of this exercise is evaluating whether your impulses to action are appropriate. We’ve distilled this lesson into the three Ps (which will help you become a proficiens!). Make sure your impulses to act are:

Properly reserved—Your impulses have a reserve clause added to them, so that you don’t cling to your actions necessarily turning out as you plan (as you did in Week 31

Prosocial—Your intentions are kind, or at least don’t actively aim to harm anyone

Proportionate to the situation at hand—You don’t have strong desires or aversions to externals, and you put things in perspective (similar to what you did in Week 3 and Week 7.

If your impulse doesn’t conform to all three Ps, correct it so that it does. Writing about your impulses may help you see if they follow the three Ps and identify areas to work on. If you find that you’re unable to act according to the three Ps in a situation, then try to refrain from acting altogether in the moment. Once you feel more comfortable catching your impulses to act, try doing so in your head on the fly. Write out an implementation intention to help you remember to subject your impulses to the three Ps over the course of the week.

There are two reasons for doing this week’s exercise: First is to experiment with a different way of working with your impressions to see what works better for you. Second is to expand your practice to include your impulses to act, in addition to your impressions.

Working with impressions that lead to passions was the subject of the Discipline of Desire (Part I), and working with impulses was the topic of the Discipline of Action (Part II). The point of this exercise is to cement the lessons of the first two disciplines. Just as in last week’s exercise, you aren’t really covering new ground here. You are continuing to subject your impressions and impulses to examination as they arise and constantly. This consistent practice, done as an immediate reaction to impressions and impulses, will lead you to surpass plateaus, as Tekanyo did, and put you on the path to becoming an advanced proficiens—and, in extremely rare cases, a sage. While this practice is simple, it isn’t easy, as it requires constant attention to and questioning of your thoughts and impulses. But nobody ever said Stoic practice is easy!

How did your week of practice go? Did you find ways that it helped ingrain the lessons of the first two disciplines? When working with impressions, did you find that this week’s practice of examining underlying value judgments was better or worse for you than framing them in terms of the dichotomy of control, as you did last week? When working with impulses, were you able to check if they followed the three Ps in your head? Write about your experiences this week.

Now that you’ve worked with impressions and impulses on a general level, let’s move on to next week’s exercise, which will narrow your focus to ones that Marcus Aurelius found particularly troublesome.