The Stoic Handbook with Jon Brooks

You understand the Stoic advice about anxiety. So why doesn't it help at four in the morning?

I look at the gap between knowing and doing, why reading about anxiety can become a way of avoiding practice, and what changed when I stopped making calm the test of a useful exercise.

The practice is small: separate the sensation from the instruction that arrives with it. You can feel anxious and still choose what to do next.

Stoic Anxiety Mastery: course details and launch updates

This episode is educational, not therapy or individual treatment.

Sources discussed: Seneca, Letters 13.4. Epictetus, Encheiridion 5, translated by A. A. Long in How to Be Free. Arnsten, A. F. T. (2009), Stress signalling pathways that impair prefrontal cortex structure and function. Salkovskis and colleagues (1999), An experimental investigation of the role of safety-seeking behaviours in the maintenance of panic disorder with agoraphobia. Levitt and colleagues (2004), The effects of acceptance versus suppression of emotion on subjective and psychophysiological response to carbon dioxide challenge in patients with panic disorder. Ellis (1962), Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy. Beck and colleagues (1979), Cognitive Therapy of Depression.

Research note: the Arnsten research concerns stress experienced as uncontrollable. The dopamine aside is commentary, rather than a finding established by the studies cited here.

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What would it mean to work with the life you have, even when it takes a turn you would never have chosen?

This recorded talk explores amor fati, the practice of loving your fate, and the difference between active acceptance and passive resignation. I connect the idea with three everyday practices: looking for a useful response to adversity, separating what is up to you from what is not, and noticing what you can still appreciate.

Bring one current frustration to mind and use it as the starting point for the exercises.

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Your first jiu-jitsu class can expose how little your toughness helps. Going back takes a different kind of courage.

Jon Friedland joins me to explore what training can teach us about Stoicism. We discuss competition nerves, judging a performance without clinging to the result, and why a black belt can leave someone's ego bigger than before. Jon explains how he keeps learning after nearly thirty years on the mats.

One question from the conversation stayed with me: what advice would you give someone else in your position? Jon uses it when he's stuck under pressure and struggling to see an option.

Jon is the founder and head instructor of Neutral Ground Academy and the author of Jiujitsu Stoic.

Jon’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jon_friedland/
Neutral Ground Academy: https://www.ngmke.com/about-us/jon-friedland/
Jon’s book: https://jiujitsustoic.com/
Jiujitsu Stoic on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HKLX73Y5

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How do you stay yourself around someone who keeps drawing you into conflict?

In this recorded Stoic masterclass, I work through five practical moves: expect difficulty, notice the hook, drop the rope, make your boundary a behaviour, and look honestly at your own patterns. We also map the inner citadel: what belongs to you, and what was never yours to control.

The session distinguishes everyday friction from harmful and dangerous relationships, then offers exercises you can use before, during and after a difficult interaction.

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You can get better at handling difficulty and still forget to enjoy your life.

This half-hour Stoic talk explores six habits for practising joy, including the seven-second control check, the View from Above and the Joy of Enough. It also covers a 24-hour virtue experiment, obstacle training and a morning-and-evening routine.

Choose one habit from the session and give it a place in your day. There's no need to turn all six into another list of things you're failing to do.

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Marcus Aurelius expected to be knocked off balance. His advice was to come back quickly and treat every return as training. This short Stoic practice is for the moment after you’ve snapped or started spiralling.

The Reset uses SPQR as a modern memory aid: Stop, Pause, Question, Reframe. Take one breath, check the story you’re telling yourself, and look at what’s actually here and what your part is. Try one Reset today and record whether you came back.

This is episode two of One Passage. Passage: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 6.11, translated by George Long.

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How do you make a decision when you might be wrong? Philosopher Massimo Pigliucci joins me to explore critical thinking and scepticism in everyday life.

Drawing on his book How to Be a (Happy) Skeptic, Massimo explains how the ancient sceptics and Cicero approached uncertainty. We discuss degrees of confidence, how much evidence a decision needs, and why an open mind still needs a way to act.

You’ll hear how to examine a belief you hold strongly, argue for a view you disagree with, and distinguish scepticism from self-doubt. We also explore relationships, meaningful work, unsolicited advice and helping children think for themselves.

Try this after listening: choose one belief you hold strongly. Ask how confident you are, and what gives you that confidence.

Watch the interview: https://youtu.be/VSDxXsN2aC8

Massimo’s book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/806907/how-to-be-a-happy-skeptic-by-massimo-pigliucci/

Figs in Winter: https://figsinwintertime.substack.com/

Massimo’s website: https://massimopigliucci.net/

Go well.

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Your body reacts before you decide anything. Seneca says even the wise still blush and sweat. This short Stoic practice helps you name the first jolt of anger or anxiety and stop mistaking it for a decision.

This is the first episode of One Passage: one ancient passage, one practice to try today. Notice the flinch once, name it, and record whether you caught it. Even noticing it after you’ve reacted counts.

Passage: Seneca, Letters from a Stoic, Letter 11, translated by Richard M. Gummere.

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You keep returning to the reply that hasn't come, the decision someone else is making, or the conversation you wish had gone differently. This 13-minute guided meditation uses Epictetus's image of the dice and the player to work with one situation you've been carrying. Settle with the breath, separate what has fallen from the use you can make of it, and choose one next action. The practice is called The Throw And The Play. There is space to reflect throughout, so bring a small, everyday concern and take your time. Source: Epictetus, Discourses 2.5.

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You know how you want to handle anger. Then someone says the wrong thing, and you're already reacting.

This 45-minute Stoic talk works through PAUSE: Perceive, Acknowledge, Unhook, Sort and Engage. It connects the Stoic distinction between an impression and your response with guided practice for emotionally charged moments, followed by questions from the original live session.

Practise making room for the feeling while choosing what to do next. The feeling may still be there.

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