The Nous by Jon Brooks
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#4: Transmute Insults into Laughter, Free Yourself from Impossible Desires, and Stoic Morning Routines

#4: Transmute Insults into Laughter, Free Yourself from Impossible Desires, and Stoic Morning Routines

And how to get the most from the Stoic books we read

Jon Brooks
December 05, 2022

🏹 Stoic Wisdom Arrows

🛡️ The Stoic Insult Roadmap: Never Be Socially Harmed Again: Learn why insults hurt, and the 5 meta frames the Stoics used to avoid this pain. Listen here.

🧁 2 Types of Desires That Always Cause Disappointment: Epictetus understood that unmet desires are the cause of much suffering. In this episode, I discuss “impossible” desires and “slave” desires, as two important types of desires that we must learn to avoid. Listen here.

☕️ Stoic Micro Morning Routines: The Micro Morning Meditations, a Monday-Friday email offering manageable Stoic morning routines created by Allan from WhatIsStoicism.com. This is a fantastic way to practice Stoicism in a low-effort way each day. Learn more here.

📚 How to Get More From the Books We Read

Reading presents a huge paradox. On the one hand, books are one of the most transformational technologies we have. They have changed my life in so many ways. On the other hand, we forget a lot of what we read and apply less than we remember.

In this talk with neuro-resilience and learning coach Justin Noppé, we go over some of the best mindsets we can use to approach reading. These tips will come in useful when reading classic Stoic texts.

🧰 Featured Idea: “Stay on the Path, See What Happens.”

If you commit to philosophy, be prepared at once to be laughed at and made the butt of many snide remarks, like, ‘Suddenly there’s a philosopher among us!’ and ‘What makes him so pretentious now?’ Only don’t be pretentious: just stick to your principles as if God had made you accept the role of philosopher. And rest assured that, if you remain true to them, the same people who made fun of you will come to admire you in time; whereas, if you let these people dissuade you from your choice, you will earn their derision twice over.

If you stick to your principles:

the very same people that once made fun of you will eventually come to respect and admire you and ask you how you become such a wise person.

If you do not stick to your principles:

Those people who tempted you to leave the Stoic path will just mock you with twice the ferocity.

Read the full article on this topic here.

💎 Stoic Handbook Premium Latest

If you enjoy the free Stoic Handbook content, particularly the podcasts, but want to go deeper, I’ve created Stoic Handbook Premium, where you can enjoy my courses and exclusive Q&As and lessons.

Here are the latest episodes published, only available to subscribers:

Q&A: Managing Anger, Confrontation vs. Avoidance, and Skilful Parenting
The 4 Most Important Habits for Social Confidence
Marcus Aurelius’ Morning Meditation That Prepared His Mind for Adversity
Overriding Thoughts, Content vs. Delivery, and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
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Recent Reviews

“Thank you so much. Sending you so much radical gratitude for you and this incredible course. It was just what I needed right now in my life. I would love more like this! It's like a complete mindset shift that is completely transformational in how I can think about all aspects of my life especially the more challenging ones!”

— Juliet

An excellent course, worthy of repeating for practice and to have the concepts become more engrained in my mind. Every day was a new twist-the two stand outs for me were thinking about “the last time” and the idea of “gratitude for what I’ve escaped.”

— Katie

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🤝 Friend of Wisdom

I hope you enjoyed this episode of The Stoic Handbook Newsletter. Feel free to reply and let me know what you think.

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Thanks for reading, and I will be in touch soon!

(Fate permitting)

Jon