The Stoic Handbook with Jon Brooks

By Jon BrooksSociety & Culture Health & Fitness Mental Health Education Self-Improvement Philosophy

The Stoic Handbook with Jon Brooks episodes

November 29, 2022 2 Types of Desires That Always Cause Disappointment
Some desires are set up to disappoint you no matter what you do. In this lesson I name two of them, what I call impossible desires and slave desires, and show why both leave you suffering even when things go your way. Once you can spot them, you can form intentions that do not quietly set you up to lose.
Further reading: www.stoichandbook.co/impossible-desires-cause-disappointment
Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.co
The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com
12 min
November 13, 2022 How To Handle Insults: A Stoic Step-By-Step
An insult only lands if you agree with it. That is the Stoic claim, and in this lesson I turn it into something you can actually use. I walk through a step-by-step way of meeting an insult so it loses its sting, drawing on how the Stoics thought about other people’s opinions of us.
Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.co
The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com
31 min
November 02, 2022 3 Communication Skills For Better Relationships
Most relationship trouble is really a communication problem wearing a disguise. In this talk I lay out the three pillars I keep coming back to: the habits that quietly wreck conversations, a simple way to express yourself well in almost any situation, and the model I use to handle conflict when it does flare up.
Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.co
The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com
41 min
October 20, 2022 Stoic Loving-Kindness Meditation For Compassion And Service
Loving-kindness is usually associated with Buddhism, but the Stoics also believed we are made for each other. This guided meditation moves through three forms of compassion: care for one person, care for humanity, and the willingness to be useful. It is a quiet, sit-down practice. You will bring people to mind, notice the resistance that appears, and practise widening the circle without forcing a particular feeling. Use it when irritation has made your world feel small, or when you want to meet other people with a little more patience.
Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.co
The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com
19 min
October 17, 2022 Can Stoic "Positive Reframing" Go Too Far? w/ Donald Robertson
Reframing a bad event into something useful is one of the classic Stoic moves. But I have always wondered where the line is. Can you reframe too much? Is there a point where turning everything into a silver lining becomes its own kind of denial?
I put the question to Donald Robertson, and his answer is more careful than I expected. We get into when reframing helps, when it tips into self-deception, and how to tell the difference.
Donald’s website: donaldrobertson.name
Donald on Twitter: twitter.com/DonJRobertson
Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.co
The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com
5 min
September 22, 2022 Stoic Gratitude Meditation For Awe In Ordinary Life
Most of what keeps you alive is invisible to you right now. The food and water that arrived without you thinking about it. The atmosphere holding at exactly the right balance. The sheer unlikelihood of having been born at all. This guided meditation is about noticing it again.
We let ourselves go numb to ordinary life, and I think that is a quiet mistake. So we slow down and try to feel the awe in a raindrop, in a single cold breath. Find somewhere quiet before you press play.
Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.co
The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com
13 min
September 12, 2022 My Experience Using Stoicism With Anxiety | WhatIsStoicism
I spent years trying to understand and work with anxiety. In this conversation Allan, creator of WhatIsStoicism, interviews me about how I have used Stoic practice and what getting better at it has looked like for me. This is a personal account of working with anxiety, not a promise that Stoicism cures it.

Allan’s blog: whatisstoicism.com/what-is-stoicism

Allan’s podcast: whatisstoicism.com/podcast
Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.co
The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com
45 min
September 08, 2022 What Did Stoics Think About Exercise? w/ Donald Robertson
The Stoics talked about training the body as well as the mind, but it rarely comes up in modern Stoicism. So I asked Donald Robertson what the ancient Stoics actually thought about exercise, and how their view of physical training fits with the rest of the philosophy.
More from Donald: donaldrobertson.name
Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.co
The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com
7 min
September 01, 2022 Epictetus On Wisdom: Stop Trying To Look Wise
A lot of us get into philosophy and self-improvement not to actually become wiser, but to be seen as wise. Epictetus spotted how badly that backfires. In this lesson I sit with one of his sharper passages and what it asks of us.
Epictetus put it this way:
“If you want to make progress, put up with being perceived as ignorant or naive in worldly matters, don’t aspire to a reputation for sagacity. If you do impress others as somebody, don’t altogether believe it. You have to realize, it isn’t easy to keep your will in agreement with nature, as well as externals. Caring about the one inevitably means you are going to shortchange the other.”
Read the breakdown: www.stoichandbook.co/do-not-wish-to-appear-wise
Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.co
The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com
7 min
August 25, 2022 How To Break The Cycle Of Stress | Epictetus
Most of us run a quiet stress loop without noticing it. We tell ourselves we have to worry, or something bad will happen. In this episode I look at that game first, then offer the Stoic alternative Epictetus recommends.
Here is the passage I work from:
“If you want to make progress, drop reflections like: ‘I will end up destitute if I don’t take better care of my affairs,’ or, ‘Unless I discipline my slave, he’ll wind up good for nothing.’ It is better to die of hunger free of grief and apprehension than to live affluent and uneasy. Better that your slave should be bad than that you should be unhappy.” Epictetus
Get the Stoic diagrams for this episode: www.stoichandbook.co/how-to-turn-stress-into-tranquility
Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.co
The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com
13 min

About The Stoic Handbook with Jon Brooks

From the publisher's feed

You've read the books. You know what Marcus Aurelius would do. But when life gets hard, the philosophy disappears. This podcast is for people who want to close the gap between knowing Stoicism and…