The View From Above
A Stoic exercise for calmness and serenity
During my training as a clinical hypnotherapist, I was introduced to a relaxation technique called The View From Above. The exercise is seen as an ‘archetypal technique of psychotherapy.’ The idea is thousands of years old and is mentioned by Stoic philosophers such as Marcus Aurelius who moonlighted as Emperor of Rome and all-in conquering general of the known world. In his classic tome, Meditations 7:48 — every home should have one — he writes:
Plato has a fine saying, that he who would discourse of man should survey, as from, some high watchtower, the things of earth; it assembles for peace or war, it’s husbandry, matings, and partings, births and deaths, noisy law-courts, lonely wastes, foreign peoples of every kind, feasting, mourning, bargaining, — observing all the motley mixture and the harmonious order that is wrought out of contrariety.
The exercise is a potent form of visual dissociation. It is the idea of The Observer — that is, stepping back from yourself to view your behaviour, thoughts and interactions…
