Friday Night Epicurean Happy Hour Zoom

Hi Everyone,

I want to propose a possiblity for having a fun Friday Night Epicurean Zoom meeting, and this is for anyone who needs to liven up their Friday evenings! Everyone attending is encouraged to eat and drink the food and beverage of their choice during the meeting. This is open to all members (new members are welcome to attend also).

If at least 3 other people besides myself are interested in attending, then we will move forward with setting a time. The time will be determined according to who will be in attendence and what time zones people live in (so may be 6pm ET -- or later if there are folks on the west coast who would like to attend).

If anyone is interested, you can let me know in this thread or you can private message me. If there is enough interest then we can determine from there the day and time.

We may not have it every Friday. Thinking perhaps on December 2nd, but looking to add in a few more people, or at least one more. The hope is that we all feel comfortable with eating, drinking, and talking all at the same time during the Zoom

We are going forward with planning for December 2nd for our first Friday Night Epicurean Happy Hour Zoom Discussion.

The main topic will be Epicurean Therapuetics: How might Epicureans deal with negative emotions. We will open up the discussion to a more intuitive approach while also remaining true to what we know of the extant Epicurean texts.

Quote from Kalosyni

The main topic will be Epicurean Therapuetics: How might Epicureans deal with negative emotions. We will open up the discussion to a more intuitive approach while also remaining true to what we know of the extant Epicurean texts.

A slight change in the planned topic of discussion -- I want to let everyone know that it will still be Epicurean therapeutics -- but instead of "getting rid of something" -- I want to focus on adding in the good things -- so Epicurean philosophy meets positive psychology.

After-all it is going to be "happy hour"!

What: Epicurean Happy Hour Zoom meeting

When: December 2nd, 8pm Eastern Time

New members message me if you have questions about how to attend

Root304 -- thank you for letting us know you are hoping to attend.

Quote from Root304

If there are any threads on where the group discourse is on the topic of Epicurean therapeutics, I'd like to try to read and prepare more for it!

I will see what I can gather and post in this thread soon.

My hope is that we reference Epicurean sources as a kind of basis for therapeutics, but of course we adopt it to our modern times.

As for meeting logistics: we'll create a unique Zoom meeting link, and send out that link by private message a few days beforehand.

If anyone else is interested, you can post in this thread, or private message.

I tried to find the thread which I thought I started on therapeutics, but so far haven't found it.

(may start a new thread).

Here are possible therapeutic topics for the Epicurean Happy Hour:

--Choices and Avoidances -- using prudence and wisdom in the pursuit of pleasure

--Friendship as an "immortal" good -- cultivating and maintaining friends

--Self-sufficiency -- clarifying what it is

--Crowding out anxiety with truth -- not removing anxiety but seeing the truth through the senses and reason which causes the anxiety to go away naturally

Quote from Godfrey

As a therapeutic, gratitude enhances current pleasure. At the same time, gratitude for past pleasures helps in dealing with loss and reminds one to take notice of what one has now.

Thank you! I was thinking about it and yet missed getting it on the list, so thank you for adding that

Starting up this quick reference table -- need to add in more sources from Epicurean writings.

See this thread for more on friendship:

Thread

Cultivation of Friendship within Epicureanism

Principle Doctrine 27:

27.	Of all the things that wisdom provides for the complete happiness of one's entire life, by far the greatest is friendship.

Principle Doctrine 27 is very important for a happy life. Modern life is busy with work and family, and yet we all still need friends. So it is very important to take the time and put the effort into making friends and maintaining friendships. Some people might be satisfied with the number and kind of friendships in their lives, but others…

Kalosyni

Jan 16th 2022

Quote from Cassius

One thing I personally would like to see too would be an expansion of the chart in post 13 above with so we could add sample "therapies" that fit under each category.

In other words I see the basic organization of a chart as divided up into sort of "areas of life" where the columns list (1) the area of life, then (2) a description of healthy functioning in that area, then (3) a description of misfires or less healthy functioning / pitfalls, then (4) references to texts cites that deal with the issue, and then (5) a final column for suggested "techniques" or "therapies" that apply to that area of functioning.

Thank you Cassius posting the reminder for tonight's happy hour!

I will have an simple outline, yet it will be a slightly different format than the above.

I do want to keep this very informal, and also I want bring in an option of interpersonal exploration of practical therapeutics, if anyone wants to try a kind of talking through of a therapeutic method as it would apply to real life.

And I want to move in the direction of "happy" hour -- so focusing on additive choices (and can explain more on that).

Post here or message me if you have any further questions

Hi Charles, we are starting tonight at 8pm ET.

(Which is sort of late for happy hour, but in case anyone on the west coast wants to join, and also this was a good time for Martin)

Here is a very rough draft of some ideas about Epicurean Therapuetic Principles (hope these are readable):

Cassius brought up a good question tonight (if I can remember it correctly):

-- Does trying too hard for happiness get in the way of happiness?

And to respond, I would say it depends on how you go about it. You need to put effort into doing the things that are the causes of happiness, and effort into doing the things that result in happiness. So you aren't chasing some amorphous idea of happiness. It could be more like a science experiment where you chose certain compounds and mix them together to see what the result will be -- so you will have trial and error, but you keep trying and observe, and once you know what works for you then you can repeat that in the future. And, if you are stumped on what to do then, you might need to seek out some friends who tend toward being happy to see how they do it.

Happiness isn't a non-stop feeling - it will naturally rise and fall as an indicator of:

1) an feeling in response to a need being met or a pleasure being experienced

2) a sense of contentment and satisfaction (a quieter feeling of happiness)

You will still feel all the other emotions in life but hopefully will spend less time having feelings such as over-whelm, hopelessness, or sadness.

So there is really a need for both subtractive and additive practices.