Difficulties strengthen the mind

“Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labour does the body.”

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

This quote from Seneca, the stoic philosopher, reminds us of the importance of having difficulties and struggles in life to build strength. Like a weightlifter needs to lift heavy weights to grow stronger, we need to experience difficult situations and adversity to build will and empathy.

With rearing children, this is an important factor. If we do too much for our children and keep them free from struggle and difficulties, they will not grow strong. However, if we expose our children to too much stress and difficulty, we are likely to weaken them. As always, finding the right balance is the key. Being too tough on our children is just as harmful as being too soft.

This also applies to us as adults. If you are constantly seeking the easy road and take the short cut, and now you are struggling to handle life’s challenges, you may need to change you thinking around challenges and adversity. If this is the case, Existential Therapy might be helpful.

Side note: Anyone out there who works in the marketing dept for a car company, I think Seneca would make a great name for a car. Mazda Seneca?