Self help? The answer is with the ancients
Self-help isn’t just a modern genre. It’s as ancient as any other and has a canon of classics, says our columnist Lukas van de Coevering. “So there is the real solution to self-help: look to the past.”
We live in a world overloaded with information about improving even the tiniest aspects of our lives. Social media is full of influencers talking about happiness, and people are writing self-help books left and right. 15,000 of these books are published every year just in the US. This isn’t because there are 15,000 books about improving yourself worth reading or thousands of Instagram reels worth watching. It’s because there is money to be made convincing people that there is an easy solution to their woes and worries. In most of the West, rates of depression, anxiety, and other disorders are on the rise. It’s no wonder that gurus are peddling the solution to a happy life at every corner.
The question is, who is right? Which of the 15,000 annual self-help authors knows what they are talking about? Who of the hundreds of thousands of online influencers is reliable? It seems impossible to know. There’s just too much to look through, and not enough certainty that this looking would be worthwhile.
However, self-help isn't just a modern genre. It’s as ancient as any other and has a canon of classics. It was just known under a different name: philosophy. Media that survives and is reproduced and engaged with over centuries or even millennia is still around for a reason. So there is the real solution to self-help: look to the past, to what’s been passed on for generations. Instead of digging through the hay of modernity to find a needle of truth, look to what has been known to be useful for eons. This comes in many forms and from many places. The Japanese idea of balance, or Ikigai. The personal notes of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius or other stoic philosophical works. The list goes on.
Timeless wisdom, not just what’s trending or makes money, is where the real self-help begins. So, this exam break, take a look through the annals of history and see what you can find. It will save you money and time and give you wisdom that’s been used for generations rather than a few months.
