If you're interested in going deeper than just the intro classes and exploring the community side of Stoicism, please join us for Sunday Stoa.

We begin at **4:00 PM (ET)** with 10 minutes of Stoic breath meditation followed by 15 minutes of writing practice.
At **4:30 PM**, we move into introductions and social time.
Around **5:00 PM**, we’ll listen to selections from the original Stoic texts and then discuss the ideas they present.

This week, we’ll be listening to Letters 39 and 40 from *Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic*: *On noble aspirations* and *On the proper style for a philosopher's discourse*

Here's the text and video if you’d like to check them out beforehand:

Letter 39
Text: [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_39](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_39)
Video: [https://youtu.be/xOt7h1UEiZk](https://youtu.be/xOt7h1UEiZk)

Letter 40
Text: [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_40](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_40)
Video: [https://youtu.be/a3SOrhDVg2I](https://youtu.be/a3SOrhDVg2I)

**Come for the whole thing or join us whenever it works best for you.** See you Sunday!

Stoic Philosophy Practice Group

Joy Salaja

Nimme

Estrella

Bladimir

K Hunter

Samy

Sunday Stoa #130

Online event

Join us for an evening of Stoic philosophy and discussion. We'll kick off the event with a short presentation exploring one of the core ideas of Stoicism, focusing on its real-world application with some practices drawn from the texts. Following the presentation, we'll break into smaller groups for a lightly-facilitated discussion about the topic.

This week, we’ll be discussing benefits, gratitude, and the right way to give and receive. We'll talk about why, who, and how to help, in ways which enrich the lives of both the giver and the receiver, and why becoming skilled at the art of generosity is crucial of achieving peace of mind.

Here's the video we'll be watching: [https://youtu.be/G1nM9UCJCIs?si=K0ad3ZM_lVEdVASQ&t=8922](https://youtu.be/G1nM9UCJCIs?si=K0ad3ZM_lVEdVASQ&t=8922)

And here's the text, along with the rest of the resources for the course: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-6r2KFyv7f-vChnX-9eKovdFsQ6DYoc_CV5RZtJb9XA/edit?usp=sharing](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-6r2KFyv7f-vChnX-9eKovdFsQ6DYoc_CV5RZtJb9XA/edit?usp=sharing)

Thanks so much for your interest, and please remember:

*"There is no such thing as good or bad fortune for the individual; we live in common. And no one can live happily who has regard to himself alone and transforms everything into a question of his own utility; you must live for your neighbor, if you would live for yourself."* \- Seneca\, Letters from a Stoic\, Letter 48

clarafitzgerald575

peter

Ingrid Sepulveda

Angela 

Abdul

Kara Rothman-Reighard

Stoicism 101: Week 8 - The Right Way to Give

You've told friends not to make anyone their whole world. You meant it.
So why does it feel different when it's you?

Why do so many thoughtful, self-aware, well-read people still find themselves:

* becoming a smaller, more careful version of themselves around someone they want
* treating one person's attention as evidence about their own worth
* staying long past the point of knowing
* mistaking the fear of losing someone for the strength of loving them
* needing reassurance that never quite holds
* unable to say what they want, in case wanting it costs them

*A Guide to Rational Living* — the 1961 book that became the foundation of modern cognitive therapy — locates the whole problem in a single word. Wanting someone was never the trouble. **Needing them is.** A preference you can survive not getting; a requirement you cannot. Same feeling, same person, entirely different consequences when it doesn't go your way.

**We'll get into:**

* the difference between a preference and a demand, and why it decides everything
* why wanting love more doesn't make you love better
* what the Stoics said about loving mortal beings
* how a demand quietly rewrites what you'll accept
* what's left of desire once you stop requiring it

**No reading required.** We listen to the chapter together.

**The plan for the night:**

* Quick intro from me — who I am, and where these ideas came from
* We listen to Chapter 8 together (\~20 min)
* Small-group discussion (\~20 min)
* Q&A and open discussion

Not therapy. No diagnosis. Nothing you have to share. Just a good book and a more reasonable way to see the world.

Philosophy + Therapy

Donna Rae Hirt

Merrill Frank

Lifeisgood

Rika

 Pito Rosario

Elise MacDonald

Damian

Kitti

Lisa

Andrew L

Lorna Singleton

Ashley carter

diane dougherty

Gail 

Liane Puleo

Katharine H James

Jess

Tory Barrmore

Tackling Your Dire Needs for Romantic Love

Join us for the next Boston Stoics meetup!

Come meet fellow members, catch up with familiar faces, and dive into good conversation, whether about philosophy, life, or whatever's on your mind.

No agenda, no pressure, just good company and good talk. Whether you've been practicing Stoicism for years or are just curious, you're welcome here.
New faces always welcome, come say hello!

Boston Stoics

Deb S

Jodi

Susan Lally

Saturday Stoa

Panera Bread

There's a word sitting in front of "unhappy," and most of the time we don't hear it.

Desperately unhappy. Not very unhappy. Not deeply, not badly — desperately. It's a stronger word than we usually notice ourselves reaching for, and this chapter argues that the gap between the two makes all the difference.

Why do so many thoughtful, self-aware, well-read people find that:

* a hard week quietly becomes a judgment on their whole life
* disappointment shows up with a prediction attached about everything that follows
* sitting with the feeling makes it deeper rather than lighter
* talking themselves down feels like denying that it mattered
* everyone else's encouragement makes it land harder, not softer

*A Guide to Rational Living* — the 1961 book that became the foundation of modern cognitive therapy — separates two things we usually treat as one. Sorrow and devastation are not the same size, and the difference between them isn't decided by what happened to you. **It's decided by what you say about what happened.** Grief is a fitting response to loss. Devastation is something you add on top of it, and it needs a sentence to stand on.

**We'll get into:**

* the line between an appropriate negative emotion and a destructive one
* why feeling fine about bad things was never the goal
* what the Stoics said about how long you have to keep suffering something
* how "this is unbearable" does more damage than the thing it describes
* what's left of grief when you stop adding to it

**No reading required.** We listen to the chapter together.

**The plan for the night:**

* Quick intro from me — who I am, and where these ideas came from
* We listen to Chapter 9 together (\~20 min)
* Small-group discussion (\~20 min)
* Q&A and open discussion

Not therapy. No diagnosis. Nothing you have to share. Just a good book and a more reasonable way to see the world.

Holly

Kathy R

Maha

Losingmeisyourloss

Tseti Atsagbede

Victor Adebayo

Connie Donnelly

isabel

Diane Russo

Kim 

Vic F.

Nicole 

susanldorando

Peaceyinny Ihuoma

wren8528

Refusing to Feel Desperately Unhappy

Philosophy as a Way of Life

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