The Town Stoic

how to stop feeling behind in life, the Stoic way after 55

There's a particular kind of quiet that settles in when you open the statement, the one with the retirement number on it, and you do the arithmetic in your head that you've done a hundred times, and it comes out the same.

The feeling of being behind isn't panic. It's flatter than that and it lasts longer. It's the sense that somewhere a train left and everyone else was on it. This film walks through 5 Stoic ways to stop feeling behind in life, drawn from Epictetus, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius and pitched at life after 55. None of them ask you to pretend. Each one gives you back the starting line.

In this film you'll learn:

• The first question to ask when the feeling arrives: behind by whose clock?

• How Epictetus's price of the lettuce ends the comparison with the friend who has the boat

• How to take the part of your finances you can't change and the part you can, one Friday at a time

• Why Seneca found old age full of pleasure and how to be fair to the body you have

• The fifth move: how Cato learned Greek late in life, and why you can begin anyway

If something in this spoke to you, tell me in the comments which of the five you're starting with, then one line under it: I'm not behind. I'm beginning.

Chapters:

0:00 Opening

4:15 One. Find the clock.

10:06 Two. Price the lettuce.

15:18 Three. Take it one Friday at a time.

20:57 The thread

22:10 Four. Be fair to the body you have.

27:33 Before the last one

28:31 Five. Begin anyway.

33:59 Closing

If you've been looking for how to stop feeling behind in life, what to do when you feel like a failure after 55, how to stop comparing yourself to others, how to start over at 60, or how to feel better about retirement savings, this is the practical Stoic answer, built for the kitchen table rather than the lecture hall.

Sources: Epictetus, Enchiridion 1, 5 and 25. Seneca, Letters 12 and 76, On Anger 3.30. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.41 and 8.36. Plutarch, Life of Cato the Elder 2.4. Cicero, On Old Age 8.26. Suda on Epictetus, Origen Against Celsus 7.53, Tacitus Annals 15.60-64, Cassius Dio 60.8. Rendered in plain modern English, never a translator's wording.

One idea from the ancients, one practical rule, every day.

Watch the film on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9iUSeHx5Y-A

how to handle people who don't respect you, the Stoic way after 55

There's a particular kind of quiet that falls over you when someone has just been rude, and everyone saw it, and you said nothing. Your son finishes your story for you, wrong, at your own table. Your son-in-law explains the job you did for thirty years. A clerk half your age calls you young man. And your answer arrives forty minutes later in the car.

Disrespect wants a reaction. The flush, the stammer, the long explanation, the sulk. This film walks through 5 Stoic moves for handling people who don't respect you, drawn from Epictetus, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius and pitched at life after 55. None of them raise your voice. None of them need a comeback. Each one keeps the reaction they came for.

In this film you'll learn:

• What to do with your face in the two seconds after someone cuts you off, and why a steady look beats any comeback

• The five-word reminder from Epictetus for the moment someone speaks badly of you

• How to stop explaining your choices to people with no standing to review them

• How to step back from the relative who only calls when he needs something, without cutting him off

• The fifth move, the one I promised you: how Cato took a blow in the baths and refused to count it, and the morning habit Marcus used to keep his head up

If something in this spoke to you, tell me in the comments which of the five you're starting with, then one line under it: I'm not handing it over.

Chapters:

0:00 Opening

4:22 One. Hold the look.

10:09 Two. Let the silence answer.

15:01 Three. Stop explaining yourself.

21:26 The thread

22:33 Four. Step back.

29:03 Before the last one

30:01 Five. Keep your head up.

36:21 Closing

If you've been looking for how to handle people who don't respect you, how to respond to disrespect, what to do when someone talks over you, how to stop explaining yourself, or how to deal with family who don't respect you, this is the practical Stoic answer, built for the kitchen table rather than the lecture hall.

Sources: Epictetus, Enchiridion 20, 28, 33, 37, 42 and 43, Discourses 1.19, 3.16 and 4.1. Seneca, On Anger 2.32, On the Firmness of the Wise Man 5-11 and 14, Letters 3. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.1, 4.49, 6.6, 7.71 and 12.4. Suda on Epictetus, Origen Against Celsus 7.53, Tacitus Annals 12.8 and 15.60-64, Cassius Dio 60.8. Rendered in plain modern English, never a translator's wording.

One idea from the ancients, one practical rule, every day.

Watch the film on YouTube: https://youtu.be/iHAZ7dv-yX0

what to do after retirement, and how to stay young after 60, the Stoic way

It's twenty to seven in the morning, and you're awake with nowhere to be. For forty years the alarm did the deciding. Now the house is quiet, the coffee is made, and a question slips in that you never had time to ask. What now? Nobody warns you about month four, when the golf is just golf and the empty calendar starts to sound like absence. Seneca saw it two thousand years ago: leisure with nothing inside it is a tomb for a man who is still breathing.

This film walks through 7 Stoic habits for the years after the work stops, drawn from Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius and pitched at the first open chapter you've had since you were young.

In this film you'll learn:

• How to walk like you're looking for something, the way Marcus noticed the cracks in baking bread

• Why Seneca told a friend to read a few books until they're his, instead of many

• What a garden teaches about the things that are up to you and the things that aren't

• The three questions Seneca borrowed from the philosopher Sextius and asked himself every night

• Why a craft is the one teacher that can't lie to you

• How teaching what you know keeps you learning it

• The seventh habit, the one I promised you: meeting your body where it is

If something in this reached you, tell me in the comments which habit you're starting this week, then one line under it: I'm not done.

Chapters:

0:00 Opening

4:42 1 Walk like you're looking for something

7:45 2 Read a few books until they're yours

11:39 3 Put your hands in the ground

15:40 4 End every day with three questions

20:00 5 Make something the wood can't lie about

24:16 6 Teach somebody what you know

28:03 Before the last one.

28:51 7 Meet your body where it is

33:35 Closing

If you've been looking for what to do after retirement, how to stay young after 60, retirement boredom, hobbies for retirees, or how to find purpose after you stop working, this is the practical Stoic answer, built for the kitchen table rather than the lecture hall.

Sources: Seneca, Letters 2, 7, 12, 49, 82 and 84, On Anger 3.36, On the Shortness of Life 1 and 14-15. Epictetus, Discourses 1.1, 1.15, 2.18 and 4.12, Enchiridion 1 and 8. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.1, 2.4, 2.11, 3.2, 3.6, 5.1, 5.9, 8.10 and 12.1. Musonius Rufus, Lecture 11. Cicero, On Old Age 15-16. Rendered in plain modern English, never a translator's wording.

One idea from the ancients, one practical rule, every day.

Watch the film on YouTube: https://youtu.be/QKxINfj6G3k

stoic philosophy to fall asleep to

Two and a half hours of calm Stoic wisdom for the end of the day. Turn the light down, put the phone out of reach, and listen. Four lessons, read slowly, under one quiet bed of music. If sleep comes in the middle of a lesson, let it. Also on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for the screen-off version: search The Town Stoic.

What you'll hear:

• Seven lessons for being alone without feeling lonely, for the evenings when the house is quiet

• Ten rules for the second half of life, all about fixing the mind first

• Five lessons about the people you've made yourself smaller for, and how to stop bending

• Seven Stoic practices for the voice in your head that starts up when the lights go off

Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Epictetus, in plain modern English. No comment prompts, no interruptions, a long music tail at the end.

Chapters

0:00 Before you sleep

1:16 Being alone without feeling lonely

37:43 Fix the mind first

1:16:59 Stop bending for people

1:55:03 The voice in your head is not the verdict

2:32:10 Goodnight

Sources: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.1, 2.5, 2.14, 3.10, 4.3, 4.7, 5.1, 5.9, 6.6, 7.13, 8.36, 8.47, 9.30, 10.16 and 12.1. Seneca, Letters 2, 7, 9, 13, 28, 56 and 71, On Anger 2.2-4 and 3.36, On Tranquility of Mind 17. Epictetus, Discourses 1.1, 1.2, 2.18, 3.13 and 3.23, Enchiridion 1, 5, 33 and 46. Musonius Rufus, Lecture 9. Rendered in our own words, never a translator's wording.

One idea from the ancients, one practical law, every day.

Watch the film on YouTube: https://youtu.be/_bre9SFS4PA

how to stay disciplined after retirement and run your own day, the Stoic way

Nobody needs you at eight o'clock this morning. For forty years somebody did. A boss, a shift, a route, a child with a lunchbox. Then one day the whole day was just lying there, open, yours, and it turned out the open day is heavier than the full one. The coffee that stretches to ten. The news in the background, then the foreground. The recliner you only meant to sit in for a minute. You were never lazy. Your discipline was borrowed, from the schedule, the paycheck and the people counting on you, and when they stopped you found out how much of your spine was on loan.

This film walks through 8 Stoic rules for running a day from the inside, drawn from Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius and pitched at life after fifty-five: the first Monday of retirement, the alarm you no longer set, the knee, the pills, the grandchildren who need you Tuesday and nobody who needs you Wednesday. Not a routine someone sells you. Eight rules that work in a house where nobody's coming to check.

In this film you'll learn:

• What to do in the first hour so the rest of the day doesn't fall over

• Why the body after fifty-five is like a roof, and the small upkeep that keeps it standing

• Why one hard thing before noon keeps the muscle for the hard things you didn't choose

• The one question Epictetus taught for the moment the easy thing calls your name

• How to keep a promise to yourself the way you'd keep one to a grandchild

• Where three hours of your day quietly go, and how to guard them like the last of the money

• How to pick a guardian, the person you live as if they were watching

• Rule eight, the one I promised you: the five-minute evening count from the oldest school in Greece that makes the other seven stick

If you made it this far, leave a line in the comments so I know: I run my own day. Write it, and then tomorrow at six, prove it.

Chapters:

0:00 Opening

3:52 1 Give the day a spine before anyone else does

7:33 2 Treat the body like the roof

11:19 3 One hard thing before noon

14:42 The thread

15:48 4 Put the easy thing on the other side of a question

19:11 5 Keep your word to yourself the way you'd keep it to a grandchild

22:47 6 Guard the hours like they're the last of the money

26:14 7 Pick a guardian

30:18 8 Count the day before you close it

34:24 Closing

If you've been looking for how to stay disciplined after retirement, a daily routine for retirees, how to structure your day when retired, how to stop wasting time, or self discipline after 60, this is the practical Stoic answer, built for the kitchen table rather than the lecture hall.

Sources: Seneca, Letters 11, 20, 76, 83 and 107, On Anger 3.36. Epictetus, Discourses 1.4, 3.10 and 3.12, Enchiridion 34. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 1, 2.7, 3.5, 4.32, 6.48, 7.55, 7.61 and 11.21. The Pythagorean Golden Verses 40-44. Rendered in plain modern English, never a translator's wording.

One idea from the ancients, one practical rule, every day.

Watch the film on YouTube: https://youtu.be/WNHmu-u0-v0

how to be alone without being lonely after 60, the Stoic way

The house is quiet in a way it didn't used to be. You notice it most around six, the hour the kitchen used to be loud. You set one plate and eat at the counter, because the table has too many chairs. And sometime in the evening a thought arrives that you don't say to anyone. Is this it now. It isn't the quiet that does the damage. It's the story you tell yourself inside it, that nobody called because nobody cares, that the empty chair is a verdict.

This film walks through 7 Stoic lessons for being alone without being lonely, drawn from Epictetus, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius and pitched at the quiet years: the widowed, the empty nest, the marriage that went silent, the friend who moved away. Not seven ways to fill the house back up. Seven ways to live well in it, so when people come you're glad, and when they don't you're still all right.

In this film you'll learn:

• The difference between alone and lonely, and how to tell which one you're actually in

• Why moving, the cruise or the new community won't fix it, and how to become good company for yourself

• What to do at three in the morning when the quiet is loudest

• How Seneca lived above a noisy bathhouse, and why the quiet is a tool and not an enemy

• How to count the company you still have, not only the people who left

• How to let the leaving be the leaving when a friend moves or a son stops coming on Sundays

• The seventh lesson, the one I promised you: the practice Seneca said could make a friend out of nothing, and it costs one phone call

If this reached you, leave one line in the comments so I know you made it to the end: I keep my own company.

Chapters:

0:00 Opening

3:30 1 Alone is a place. Lonely is a story about it

7:51 2 You take yourself everywhere. Make yourself good company

12:18 3 Stay in the room you're in

16:32 4 The quiet is a tool. Pick it up

20:49 5 Count the company you still have

25:15 Before the last two

26:05 6 Let the leaving be the leaving

30:27 7 Be the one who goes first

34:14 Closing

If you've been looking for how to deal with loneliness, how to be happy living alone, loneliness after retirement, coping with an empty nest, or how to stop feeling lonely in a quiet house after 60, this is the practical Stoic answer, built for the kitchen table rather than the lecture hall.

Sources: Epictetus, Discourses 3.13 and 1.4, Enchiridion 46. Seneca, Letters 2, 9, 28 and 56, On Anger 3.36. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.14, 4.3, 6.48, 7.13, 7.59, 8.36, 8.59 and 10.16. Musonius Rufus, Lecture 9. Hierocles in Stobaeus. Rendered in plain modern English, never a translator's wording.

One idea from the ancients, one practical rule, every day.

Watch the film on YouTube: https://youtu.be/DvcPr7ZUszY

how to stop being taken for granted by family and friends, the Stoic way

Your son's name on the screen at four on a Tuesday, and you already know before you answer. The car, or the money, or can you take the kids Saturday, again. You say yes, because you always say yes, and he's gone in ninety seconds without asking how your knee was. The people who take you for granted are almost never cruel. They're comfortable. You made them comfortable, one yes at a time, until you stopped being a person to them and became the porch light. Always on. Nobody thanks the porch light.

This film walks through 5 quiet Stoic moves for the people who lean on you hardest, drawn from Epictetus, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius and pitched at life after fifty-five: the grown son who calls when the car breaks, the friend who only rings to unload, the cosign, the brother who shows up for the will. Not one of the five raises your voice. Every one of them changes what you supply.

In this film you'll learn:

• How to stop being on call without a single fight, and the five words to say instead

• Why growing where nobody can see you is the move that unsettles them most

• The one-hour rule for the wounded text that used to make you fold

• What Seneca, who gave more than almost anyone alive, said about who deserves the gift

• How to say no to the loan, the truck and the spare key without a speech

• The fifth move, the one I promised you: how to leave a situation so cleanly you never look back

If something in this spoke to you, if you heard your own phone in it, tell me in the comments which of the five moves you're starting with. Then write one line under it, so I know you made it to the end: I'm not on call.

Chapters:

0:00 Opening

4:40 1 Stop being on call

9:53 2 Grow where nobody's watching

15:35 3 Close the emotional door

20:57 The thread

22:32 4 Hold the line without a speech

28:10 Before the last one

29:19 5 Leave clean

34:34 Closing

If you've been looking for how to stop being taken for granted, how to stop being used by family, how to set boundaries with adult children, signs people are taking advantage of you, or how to stop people pleasing after sixty, this is the practical Stoic answer, built for the kitchen table rather than the lecture hall.

Sources: Epictetus, Enchiridion 5, 25 and 46, Discourses 4.1. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.6, 7.26 and 10.36. Seneca, On Benefits 1.1 and 4.10-11, Letters 3 and 9. Rendered in plain modern English, never a translator's wording.

One idea from the ancients, one practical rule, every day.

Watch the film on YouTube: https://youtu.be/x7_j1WZEuDg

Two hours of calm Stoic wisdom for the end of the day. Put the phone face down, let the room go dark, and listen. Four lessons, read slowly, under one quiet bed of music. If you fall asleep in the middle of a sentence, that is what it is for.

What you'll hear: seven quiet habits of people who are at ease with themselves. Five rules for loving someone without your peace depending on what they do next. Seven lessons on keeping your own counsel and ending the day inside yourself. Eight habits for the mind that will not stop at ten past three in the morning.

Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Epictetus, in plain modern English. No comment prompts, no interruptions, a long music tail at the end.

Chapters: 0:00 Before you sleep. 1:33 Seven quiet habits. 21:07 Loving with an open hand. 59:52 Focus on yourself and stay quiet. 1:37:35 Eight habits for a quiet mind. 2:13:40 Goodnight.

Sources: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.1, 5.1, 7.29, 8.36, 10.16 and 12.3. Seneca, Letters 13, 56, 63 and 83, Consolation to Marcia, Consolation to Helvia. Epictetus, Discourses 1.2 and 4.12, Enchiridion 1, 5, 33 and 50. Rendered in our own words, never a translator's wording.

One idea from the ancients, one practical law, every day.

Watch the film on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4-RCoLoDMVU

how to stop worrying about things you can't control, the Stoic way

It's ten past three in the morning and you're awake again, studying the crack in the ceiling while your mind runs the same loop. The result sitting unopened on the portal. Your son's job. Whether the money lasts. Whether you said the wrong thing at dinner. In the daytime you're the one everyone leans on, and underneath there's a hum that never switches off. That isn't diligence. It's a tax, paid in sleep and in dinners you didn't taste.

This film walks through 8 Stoic habits for a quiet mind, drawn from Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, and pitched at real life after fifty-five: the waiting room, the grandchild driving home in the rain, the friend who stopped calling, the fear of the small apartment. The thread through all eight is simple. Worry is being a passenger in your own head. These habits put you back in the driver's seat.

In this film you'll learn:

• Why rehearsing the worst case in daylight stops it running the night

• The one question that sorts every worry into two piles, and what to do with each

• How to guard the gate so other people's fear stops arriving in your chest

• The five-minute nightly review Seneca used to sleep well

• How to stop arguing with what's already true

• Why you have never once had to live a whole winter in a single night

• What a rich man learned from sleeping on the floor a few nights a month

• The archer: the Stoic picture that takes the fear out of results

If something in this spoke to you, tell me in the comments which of the eight you're going to start with tonight. Then write one line under it, so I know you made it to the end: I keep what's mine.

Chapters:

0:00 Opening

4:50 1 Rehearse the worst in the morning

7:49 2 The control test

11:53 3 Guard what comes in

14:35 The thread

16:10 4 The nightly review

19:28 5 Want what happens

22:17 6 Stay where you are

25:43 7 Practice going without

29:18 Before the last one

30:17 8 Aim at the right thing, not the result

34:41 Closing

If you've been looking for how to stop overthinking, how to stop worrying about the future, how to stop worrying about things you can't control, how to calm an anxious mind at night, or Stoic habits for peace of mind after sixty, this is the practical Stoic answer, built for three in the morning rather than the lecture hall.

Sources: Seneca, Letters 7, 13, 18, 78 and 98, and On Anger 3.36. Epictetus, Enchiridion 1, 8 and 14. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.1, 5.16, 5.20, 7.8, 8.36 and 12.17. The archer from Cicero, On Ends 3.22. Rendered in plain modern English, never a translator's wording.

One idea from the ancients, one practical law, every day.

Watch the film on YouTube: https://youtu.be/XhDr19e3CsI

how to stop explaining yourself, the Stoic way

You already know what you're going to do. The house you're going to sell, the invitation you're not going to accept, the money you're not going to lend this time. And yet there you are at the kitchen table, rewriting the text for the third time, lining up your reasons. Every explanation you give before anyone asks for it hands over a small piece of your momentum and your right to live your own life without filing a report.

This film walks through 7 Stoic lessons for a quieter, stronger life, drawn from Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Seneca, Zeno and Cato, and pitched at real life after fifty-five: the grown child who wants reasons, the reunion you skipped, the committee you stepped down from, the coffee group where every story is a resume. The thread through all seven is simple. Your life doesn't need a caption. Stop explaining it and build it.

In this film you'll learn:

• Why the plan you keep to yourself is the plan that gets done

• How to tell, in about a week, who wanted you and who only wanted access to you

• Why a no without a reason has no doors for anyone to pry open

• How to let what you've done speak instead of what you're going to do

• Why most of what reaches you every day isn't yours to answer

• What Marcus Aurelius was really working on, alone, at night, for the last years of his life

• The one line from his notebook that holds the whole film: stand upright, don't be held upright

Chapters:

0:00 Opening

5:30 1 Keep your plans like a secret

8:34 2 Discipline is private

11:53 3 Let silence sort the room

15:12 The thread

17:35 4 Your no needs no backstory

21:55 5 Let what you've done talk

25:19 6 Stop feeding the noise

29:31 Before the last one

30:32 7 Become someone who needs no audience

34:08 Closing

Sources: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 3.5, 4.3, 4.19, 5.6, 8.53 and 10.16. Epictetus, Discourses 1.1.17 and Enchiridion 35, 46 and 48. Seneca, Letters 1, 3, 7 and 9. Zeno in Diogenes Laertius, Lives 7.23. Plutarch, Cato the Younger 4 and 16-19. Rendered in plain modern English, never a translator's wording.

One idea from the ancients, one practical law, every day.

Watch the film on YouTube: https://youtu.be/uFfa1t6Mkuw