The Stoic Handbook by Jon Brooks

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...

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 kee...

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.
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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 ses...

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 ac...