Try The Opposite Remedy

<p><a href='https://el2.convertkit-mail.com/c/27uzd622nnaoh2ge22h8/qvh8h7h4p4rok5/aHR0cHM6Ly9nZW5pLnVzLzk3a3plYQ=='>In his essay <em>Of Clemency</em></a>, Seneca tells a story of a time Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman Empire, had his temper severely tested. Augustus receives intelligence that a man named Lucius Cinna was conspiring against him. Augustus summoned a council of close friends to consult on his plan to have Cinna executed. When the group agreed unanimously against Augustus’s retaliation scheme, he blew a fuse, racked equally with anger and fear.</p><p>His ranting and screaming met only silence from the group he gathered, broken only by more ranting and screaming. Finally, Augustus’s wife intervened: </p><p>“Will you take a woman’s advice? Do what doctors do when the usual prescriptions have no effect: try the opposite remedies. Strictness has gotten you nowhere...Now try and see how far clemency gets you: forgive Lucius Cinna. He’s been caught and now can do you no harm, though he can do your reputation some good.”</p><p>Augustus thanked his wife, called the meeting adjourned, and summoned Cinna to make amends. Cinna became Augustus’s “most grateful and loyal adherent,” <a href='https://el2.convertkit-mail.com/c/27uzd622nnaoh2ge22h8/92uzhnh6r6pz5v/aHR0cHM6Ly9kYWlseXN0b2ljLmNvbS9zZW5lY2EvP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9Y29udmVydGtpdCZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWNvbnZlcnRraXQmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPW9wcG9zaXRlLXJlbWVkeQ=='>Seneca reports</a>. “And no one ever again formed any plot against him.”</p><p>Even if you never find yourself the ruler of an empire or the target of a murder plot, this advice applies to so many circumstances. “What assistance can we find in the fight against habit?” <a href='https://el2.convertkit-mail.com/c/27uzd622nnaoh2ge22h8/nziohvhx0x367z/aHR0cHM6Ly9kYWlseXN0b2ljLmNvbS9lcGljdGV0dXMvP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9Y29udmVydGtpdCZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWNvbnZlcnRraXQmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPW9wcG9zaXRlLXJlbWVkeQ=='>Epictetus asked</a>. Then answered, “Try the opposite!” Viktor Frankl liked to cure neurotic patients with a method called