Serenity Prayer: Part Three

In the third and final part in this series looking at the Serenity Prayer, I will discuss the role of wisdom in stoicism and how it becomes the key to living out this prayer to the fullest and achieving serenity. I will conclude with discussing how the four virtues of stoicism can all be found within the prayer itself.

Wisdom to Know the Difference

It sits at the helm, and guides us through all hazards; nay, we cannot be safe without it, for every hour gives us the occasion to make use of it.

On the Happy Life – Seneca

Wisdom in stoicism is looked as being such an essential part of living a good life that it is one of the four main virtues of the philosophy. Seneca found it to be so important that in his book On the Happy Life he described wisdom as being something that a happy life has to be founded on. It is only through wisdom that we can gain insight into ourselves, the world that we live in and how we can go through each day living properly. As the quote above discusses, wisdom becomes the guide for us every day that keeps us from danger and is the only way to stay safe. Seneca further described the value of wisdom as:

Wisdom is right understanding, a faculty of discerning good and evil; what is to be chosen and what is to be rejected…it sets watch over our words and deeds

Seneca – On the Happy Life

For those of us in recovery, we can look back and see how it was often times our addictions that were at the helm of our journey through life. We can look at the paths that we went down using this as our guides. Therefore, it becomes essential that as we move into a life of recovery that we stop giving our addicted minds guide over our lives and start allowing for wisdom to take the helm.

The reason why the Serenity Prayer ends with the idea of wisdom is that it is cautioning us not to go back to the way that we were. We lived lives where we would overreact to things that are out of our control as well as trying to have control over things that we could not. And when things did not go our way that we tried to have control over, we could find drinking or using as an ease to the frustration or disappointment for things not going our way.

The reason I broke this series up into three parts is I wanted to help with this wisdom to know the difference. I wanted take an in depth look at what are the things that we truly do not have control over and cannot change. Then I wanted to focus on the things that we do have control over and can change. Understanding both of these in depth is the gaining of wisdom and now it is about using that knowledge to guide what you do everyday.

The perfection of wisdom is what makes the happy life, although even the beginnings of wisdom make life bearable

Seneca – Letters from a Stoic

It is something that takes practice to do. And I will even admit I have those moments where I find myself failing in this. But the more that you practice it the better that you get it. The closer you can get to the perfection of wisdom the happier your life can be but even at the beginning life already starts to feel a little bit better.

Serenity

Self-knowledge will bring you calm. With calm, you’ll do the right thing.

Maxime Legace

Serenity is this idea of being calm, peaceful and untroubled. The reason why the prayer leads with this idea of serenity is that in the end you need to have a calm mind to be able to follow the parts of the prayer. If you have a chaotic mind at the helm of your journey, it will be hard to carry out each part of the Serenity Prayer. But the beauty of it, is that it is basically a loop that builds on itself. When you use wisdom (self-knowledge) to understand what you can change and cannot change and you use this to make the right decisions you are more at peace as you are approached with further decisions. So in the end, the prayer begins with serenity but at the end of the prayer you will gain it as well.

Four Virtues and the Serenity Prayer

The four virtues (wisdom, courage, justice and temperance) are the basis of Stoic philosophy and what is felt to be the guide to a fulfilling and virtuous life. You can read more in depth on a discussion of these four virtues in an article I previously wrote here.

The unity of stoicism and what we learn in recovery can be easily seen in how these four virtues are found in the Serenity Prayer. This prayer serves as a helpful way for us to remember the principles of recovery that will help us make better decisions to create a better life for us which should then help maintain our sobriety. The way that you can see the four virtues of stoicism within the Serenity Prayer are:

Temperance: the virtue of self-control can be seen in how the prayer discusses us knowing what we have control over and what we do not have control over.

Justice: that when we make decisions in our life over what we have control over and can change, that those decisions should be for the greater good of all. It is no longer about ourselves but other people.

Wisdom: that it takes knowledge and experience to understand what we have control over and what we do not have control over.

Courage: in the end of the day it takes courage to live a life this way and to follow this prayer and the other virtues. It is one thing to know but it is another thing to do.

The fact that you can find the four virtues of stoicism in the Serenity Prayer is why studying this philosophy can only further strengthen your recovery. You have a wealth of knowledge written on this subject and it moves beyond the ideas of our addictions and focuses on what we have to deal with on a daily basis just for simply being human and alive. Many of the things that drove us to addiction are similar to what everyone else suffers from they just release them in other vices. Basically, what can drive some of us to addiction are just parts of the human experience that everyone deals with and this philosophy looks at how to move beyond that and live a purpose filled life.

If you found this article insightful I would recommend that you read some of the others that I have published on this website. You can also subscribe to my social media or my email list below to be kept up to date on new articles as they come out.