Shows / The Stoic Handbook with Jon Brooks
The Stoic Handbook with Jon Brooks
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 actually living it. New episodes weekly. Start with the free 7-Day Stoic Challenge: https://www.stoicchallenge.co/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=show-description&utm_content=global
Episodes
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksStoic Sleep Affirmations: Enough For Tonight
The day is finished, but you may still be going over it. This quiet bedtime practice begins with settling into the bed, then offers short Stoic reflections on…
- The Stoic Handbook with Jon Brooks
Why You Still Feel Anxious When You Know the Stoic Advice
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…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksAmor Fati: The Stoic Practice Of Loving Your Fate
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…
- The Stoic Handbook with Jon Brooks
Jon Friedland: Jiu-Jitsu, Fear and the Practice of Stoicism
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…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksDifficult People: A Stoic Masterclass
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…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksStoic Joy: Six Habits For A Calmer Life
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…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksThe Reset: How to Come Back Quickly When You've Lost It
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 Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksMassimo Pigliucci: How to Think Clearly Without Certainty
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…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksThe Flinch: What to Do With the First Jolt of Anger or Anxiety
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…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksLet Go Of What You Can't Control: A Stoic Meditation
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…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksThe Stoic Pause: Respond Without Reacting
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…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksStoic Sleep Practice: Full-Body Release Into Deep Rest
A 13-minute guided sleep practice for nights when your body is in bed but the day is still moving through your mind. This slow full-body scan moves from the…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksIs This Worth Your Peace of Mind? A Stoic Guide to Anger
Anger can feel like strength, clarity or self-respect. But once it gathers momentum, it narrows your choices and makes you pay for the first reaction twice. In…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksStoic Morning Rehearsal For A High-Stakes Day
A 7-minute guided Stoic practice for the morning of a presentation, interview, difficult meeting or test. You will rehearse one realistic setback, separate…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksEnvy Is the Greatest Motivator
Envy has a terrible reputation. But the feeling itself can tell you what you value, where comparison has hooked you, and what you may need to work towards. In…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksA Stoic Morning Practice For Grief And Loss
Some mornings, grief is present before you open your eyes. This gentle guided practice does not ask you to stop grieving or manufacture a better mood. You will…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksThe Marcus Aurelius Quote He Never Wrote
One of Marcus Aurelius's most famous online quotes does not appear in the Meditations. In this episode, I look at several fabricated, misattributed and…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksStoic Morning Practice: Be Fair To Yourself
Some mornings, the first voice you hear is a prosecutor. It lists what you did badly, what you did not finish and what you should have become by now. This…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksYou Broke the Streak. Now What?
One missed day is rarely the problem. The story you tell yourself the next day is. This episode looks at the Stoic idea of progress, why trends survive lapses…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksStoic Attention Practice: Return Before The Noise
Before the first message, headline, or demand, practise the Stoic discipline of attention. This guided meditation introduces prosochē: noticing where the mind…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksThe Stoic Skill Underneath Every Other Skill
You look up and twenty minutes have gone. The problem is not only the phone. It is the tiny judgements your mind keeps accepting while you scroll. In this…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksStoic Morning Practice: Start Before You Feel Ready
Some mornings, nothing has gone wrong and the day already feels like too much. This guided Stoic morning practice starts from Marcus Aurelius's own argument…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksWhy You Knew Better and Did It Anyway
We usually explain regret as knowing better but lacking discipline. This episode argues something more useful: in a hot state, the values on your internal…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksNobody Does Evil on Purpose. Really?
Stoicism says nobody does wrong on purpose: every bad act begins in a mistaken judgement about what is good. But does that survive contact with clear-eyed…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksWhy the Relaxed Man Always Wins (with Bas Rutten)
The most feared striker in MMA history spent this conversation talking about calm. Before his first fight in Japan, Bas Rutten wrote one letter on each fist…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksAre You Using Stoicism to Numb Out? | with Erick Cloward
Stoicism is meant to help you master your emotions. There's a version of it that just teaches you to avoid them. In this conversation I joined Erick Cloward on…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksMarcus Aurelius Morning Preparation: Stoic Affirmations from the Meditations
During the 170s of the common era, while ruling an empire and often away from Rome, Marcus Aurelius wrote notes to himself in Greek. What survived is not a…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksAre Stoics Emotionless? Erick Cloward, Author of Stoicism 101
Are Stoics really emotionless? It is the most common thing people believe about Stoicism, and it puts a lot of people off the one idea that might actually help…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksMarcus Aurelius Was Terrible at Stoicism
Marcus Aurelius is the most quoted philosopher on the internet, and his private journal shows a man who kept failing at the thing he's famous for. He struggled…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksStoic Morning Practice: Quiet The Inner Critic
You haven't done anything yet, and the voice is already running its commentary. Too slow, too weak, not enough. The day hasn't started and you're already…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksStoic Morning Affirmations: Eight Truths for the Day Ahead (Guided Practice)
Most morning affirmations ask you to declare a future you wish for. The Stoics did the opposite. They began the day by recollecting what was already true. This…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksThe Manosphere Got Stoicism Backwards
The manosphere has spent years quoting the Stoics to young men. Marcus Aurelius. Epictetus. Seneca. The version they sell, anger as strength, dominance as…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksOverthinking Is Not a Thinking Problem
Most advice for overthinking points you at the thoughts themselves. Journal them. Replace the negative ones with positive ones. Breathe. Meditate. Run. But…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksThe Anxiety Trap: Why Fighting Makes It Worse
For most of my adult life I had a low-level hypervigilance running in the background. I tried to fight it with books, breathwork, control techniques…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksWhy the Stoics Never Needed Willpower
You have quit every hard goal for the same reason, and it is not lack of willpower. The Stoics worked this out 2,000 years ago. Instead of fighting discomfort…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksStoic Morning Practice: Stop Dreading Day Before It Starts
Some mornings the dread arrives before the alarm. A tightness in the chest, a list already forming, a quiet resistance to the day ahead. This guided Stoic…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksWhen the World Feels Unjust (A Stoic Response)
Most people hear focus on what you can control and assume Stoicism means stop caring about everything else. That is not what it means, and it might be one of…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksDiscipline Is a Skill, Not a Trait (5 Stoic Moves)
I used to think discipline was a character trait, like height or eye colour. Some people had it. I did not. That story is comfortable, and it is rubbish. The…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon Brooks91% of Goals Fail: A Stoic Philosopher Explained Why 2,000 Years Ago
Most resolutions fail because they are built wrong, not because you lack willpower. Epictetus worked out why 2,000 years ago. In this episode I break down…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksStoic Morning Energy Boost: 5 Minutes To Wake Up Ready
Some mornings you do not need calm. You need to wake up. This 5-minute Stoic practice is built for the mornings when your body is out of bed but your mind has…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksYour Opinions Aren't Observations, They're Demands
You form hundreds of opinions a day. About the news, about your colleagues, about the person in front of you in the queue. They feel automatic, like seeing…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon Brooks"Remove Desire Entirely": What Epictetus Actually Meant
You read that line in the Discourses and your mind goes straight to cravings. Appetites. The stuff you are ashamed of. But that is not what Epictetus meant…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksMarcus Aurelius Morning Meditation: Face The Day With Stoic Calm
You know the feeling. The alarm goes off and the day is already rushing at you. The emails, the conversations you are not ready for, the low-grade dread of…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksStoic Indifferents Explained: How to Want Without Suffering
If only virtue is good, why does anything else matter? Why go to the gym, build a career, or plan for the future? This is the question that confused me for…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksOwn What's Yours: The Dichotomy of Control (From The Vault)
This episode is a full lesson from one of the premium courses inside The Stoic Vault, my membership for people who practise Stoicism rather than just read…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksThe Stoic Vault: What I Built and Why
About two years ago, I hit a wall. I had been teaching Stoicism for years. Writing about it. Making podcasts about it. And I was still losing my temper. Still…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksWhat the Stoics Actually Meant by Practice
Epictetus did not write books. He ran a school where students lived for years, practising responses to insults, hardship and loss. Marcus Aurelius wrote the…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksThe Gap Between Knowing Stoicism and Living It
A few months ago I was in a conversation that started to go sideways. I could feel the tension rising, the tightening in my chest, my voice getting sharper. I…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksRelease the Day: 15-Minute Deep Sleep Body Scan
A slow, Yoga Nidra-inspired body scan to help your body soften and your mind go quiet at the end of the day. You will move gently from head to toe, releasing…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksThe CCTV Thought Experiment: You Are What You Do, Not What You Say
Imagine aliens installed a silent CCTV camera over your shoulder for 30 days, then compiled a report on what you actually value, based only on your calendar…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksMorning Gratitude: A 10-Minute Stoic Practice
Start the day with a short gratitude practice rooted in Stoic thinking. In about ten minutes you will name three gratitudes, shift your attention from what is…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksStoic Morning Practice: Let Go of What You Can’t Control
Start the day with the most useful Stoic distinction there is: what is up to you, and what is not. In this 6-minute guided morning practice you will gently…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksPsychedelics and Buddhism: Why Peak Experiences Aren't Enough (with Martijn Schirp)
Martijn Schirp and I have known each other for nearly a decade. He first reached out after reading a meditation article I posted on Reddit, a message that…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksMake Your Time Count: Stoic Keys to Focus and Fulfillment
Most of us feel we have too much to do and not enough time to do it. The Stoics had a different diagnosis: the problem is rarely a shortage of time, it is how…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksWhat You'll Miss When It's Gone: A Stoic Gratitude Meditation (Premeditation of Adversity)
What if the way into real gratitude is not positive thinking, but imagining loss? In this 12-minute guided meditation I walk you through an old Stoic practice…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksStoicism Decoded: Your Guide to Ancient Wisdom in Plain English
The Greek terms are where a lot of people get stuck with Stoicism. This episode is a plain-English guide to the vocabulary that actually matters, so the ideas…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksThe 4 Stoic Virtues: Your Compass for a Meaningful Life
Ever feel like you are drifting without a clear sense of what actually matters? The Stoics had an answer: four virtues to steer by. In this episode I break…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksEpictetus' 20 Rules for Stoic Social Mastery: Cut the Noise, Claim Your Calm
A short, practical guide to staying calm in a world of group-chat drama and constant notifications. This 12-minute guided practice works through Epictetus'…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon BrooksThe Dichotomy of Control 2.0 – Epictetus for Anxious Achievers
Let me guess. You have read Marcus Aurelius. You know some things are up to you and some are not. And you still lie awake replaying conversations, spiralling…
The Stoic Handbook with Jon Brooks5 Stoic Skills for Unshakeable Confidence & Self-Sovereignty
What if real confidence is not positive affirmations or fake-it-till-you-make-it, but a handful of skills the Stoics spent centuries practising? In this…