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

October 29, 2020 Guided Meditation: Seneca's Stoic Evening Reflection
Each night, once the house had gone quiet, Seneca would go back over his whole day, what he had done and said, hiding nothing from himself. This guided meditation is built on that practice.
It follows on from the morning meditation I shared last week. Both stand on their own, but together they bookend the day nicely. If the aim is to grow in character, we need to notice where we did well, see where we fell short, and gently set our intentions for tomorrow. Find somewhere quiet and let the day settle.
Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.co
The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com
9 min
October 22, 2020 The Complete Stoic Morning Meditation
This is a Stoic contemplation to settle into each morning before the day gets hold of you. It draws on Marcus Aurelius and his practice of premeditation of adversity, the habit of reminding yourself, on waking, that you may meet the meddling, the ungrateful and the difficult, and resolving to meet them with patience.
Practise it this way and you arrive at the day already braced for it, able to take what comes more lightly. Find somewhere quiet and let it set the tone.
The technique explained: stoichandbook.co
The evening reflection: stoichandbook.co
Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.co
The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com
14 min
October 17, 2020 Stoicism is Not a Dead Philosophy
Someone pointed me to a Tucker Max tweet calling Stoicism a dead philosophy, backed by a study suggesting that a naive endorsement of Stoic ideology might actually be bad for wellbeing. It is a serious challenge, so I wanted to take it seriously.
In this one I dig into the study itself, into the claim, and into the common misreadings of Stoicism underneath both. The real question I am chasing: does Stoicism do more harm than good, or is something getting lost in translation?
The tweet: twitter.com/TuckerMax
The study: psyarxiv.com
Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.co
The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com
27 min
October 08, 2020 Meditation: End of the World Premeditation
In this guided meditation you will imagine an apocalyptic scene, the end of the world, as a way of bringing your most important values sharply into focus.
It draws on the Stoic practice of premeditation of adversity. Picturing what could go wrong leaves you better prepared, lets you rehearse meeting hardship calmly, and quietly deepens your gratitude for what is still here. So much time gets lost to the quiet assumption that we will live forever. Sitting with the shortness of life has a way of steering us somewhere truer. Find somewhere quiet and let yourself go there.
Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.co
The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com
12 min
September 24, 2020 Seneca On The Value of Past Hardship
Seneca used the image of a fighter to make his point about hardship. The boxer who has never been hit cannot enter the ring with real confidence. The one who can is the one who has seen his own blood, been knocked down, and got back up more defiant than before.
In this short one I read that passage and sit with why it has stayed with me. There is a way of looking back at your own past hardship that changes what it meant, and I think it can quietly reshape how you carry the next one.
Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.co
The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com
10 min
September 17, 2020 Meditation: How To Mentally Rehearse Plans
In Chapter 4 of the Enchiridion, Epictetus lays out a simple three-step way of making plans, one that keeps you steady whether things go your way or not. This guided exercise walks you through it.
Like anything worthwhile, the value is in the doing, not the hearing. So try committing to run through this process each time you make a plan. Practise it enough and it stops being a technique and becomes the way you naturally approach things. Find somewhere quiet and let me take you through it.
The accompanying breakdown: stoichandbook.co
Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.co
The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com
10 min
September 10, 2020 Meditation: The Dichotomy of Control Training
The first chapter of Epictetus and his handbook deals with the dichotomy of control: the line between what is up to us and what is not. This meditation is a training exercise to help that principle sink past the intellectual level and into how you actually live.
Epictetus made big claims for it. Hold this distinction, he said, and you become genuinely free, free of resentment, free from anyone having the power to harm you. The idea is simple, the practice less so. Find somewhere quiet and let me guide you through it slowly.
The accompanying breakdown: stoicism.substack.com
Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.co
The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com
11 min
September 03, 2020 Meditation: The Complete Stoic Death Contemplation
Death is natural and inevitable, neither good nor bad in itself. What causes us so much anxiety is the judgement we lay on top of it. This is the full guided contemplation for sitting with that judgement and softening it.
When the mind grows more accepting of death, life takes on a quiet urgency. The smaller anxieties fall away and what is left is room for joy, compassion and attention. As Sam Harris has pointed out, everyone you meet will one day lose everything they love, so why be anything but kind to them in the meantime. Find somewhere quiet and let this one take its time.
Free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: stoicchallenge.co
The Stoic Vault: stoicvault.com
12 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…