For the next week, choose a time at the end of each day to think about someone you encountered who frustrated you or whom you perceived to do you wrong.

Even though the Stoics thought the mind was our most valuable asset—it’s the most sophisticated and important tool we have at our disposal—they did not neglect the body. In fact, as Epictetus’s teacher Musonius Rufus suggests, the mind (or “soul”) and body work together, each influencing the other, for good or for bad.

You may have noticed that we’ve been focusing on aversion in the Discipline of Desire. That’s because aversion can be seen as a type of desire: the desire to avoid misfortune. We use the Discipline of Desire as shorthand for the Discipline of Desire and Aversion, the shortened name given to this discipline by French scholar Pierre Hadot.1 The

Now that you’ve listed some possibilities, choose a type of discomfort you’d like to focus on for the week. Here are some tips: Concentrate on something that happens often. Ask yourself: If you were able to wave a magic wand to make yourself completely resilient to this discomfort, would your life improve dramatically? If

The Stoics would say that much of James’s distress is caused by his failure to anticipate how things might go wrong. This week’s exercise is to soften the blow of misfortunes by anticipating them in advance.

Even though the Stoics thought the mind was our most valuable asset—it’s the most sophisticated and important tool we have at our disposal—they did not neglect the body. In fact, as Epictetus’s teacher Musonius Rufus suggests, the mind (or “soul”) and body work together, each influencing the other, for good or for bad.

Method 1: Plan for things to go wrong. We’ll start this exercise by writing out a few plans for the day. Then we’ll assume that what could go wrong will.

WEEK 5 Strengthen yourself through minor physical hardships

You may have noticed that we’ve been focusing on aversion in the Discipline of Desire. That’s because aversion can be seen as a type of desire: the desire to avoid misfortune. We use the Discipline of Desire as shorthand for the Discipline of Desire and Aversion, the shortened name given to this discipline by French scholar Pierre Hadot.1 The