Stop reading about courage. Start training it.
Make the call. Have the conversation. Do the thing fear keeps talking you out of. I combine Stoic practice and psychology in a self-paced video course: a martial art for the mind.
25 videos · Guided audio · About 20 minutes a session
One payment, not a subscription · Lifetime access · 30-day refund
With Jon Brooks · Brazilian jiu-jitsu purple belt
Shayamal Vallabhjee
Mindset coach to Olympic athletes · On my anxiety meditations
My earlier Insight Timer course: more than 7,000 students · Rated 4.8
At 18, I was driving home from band practice when a bandmate held a knife to my throat from the back seat. I escaped. The fear of being trapped and unable to defend myself stayed with me.
In a separate incident, I was attacked by a group of men. Anxiety became something I had to live with for years.
At 23, I was waiting for jaw reconstruction surgery. My surgeon warned me that my body would feel like it had been “thrown out of a car window”.
I began sitting in the garden, meditating for fifty minutes at a time. I read Marcus Aurelius and Man’s Search for Meaning, and rehearsed what I was about to face. That was my first real Stoic training.
Over the years I explored meditation, CBT and martial arts. I kept coming back to a practical question: what can I reach for when fear shows up?
That question became this course. I’m still practising because I still need it.
“Stay calm, Jon.”
At my first jiu-jitsu competition, a much stronger opponent took me down fast. I panicked. My coach called from the side of the mat. I returned to my breath, found an opening and swept him.
I still lost. I walked off smiling because I had learnt more from that struggle than from any easy round.
I’m now a purple belt, with more than seven years on the mats. That is how I approach Stoicism too: practise, find out what holds up, and keep training.
The method
Know what to do when fear shows up.
You can know the Stoic ideas and still forget them when it matters. In this course, you learn a tool, rehearse it and try it in your own life. That is what I mean by psychotechnology.
01
Understand the Cognitive Model, the Exposure Model and the Four Stoic Antidotes. Notice what sets your own worry in motion.
02
Drill the guided meditations. Put a prediction on paper with the Triple Column Technique. Rehearse before you need it.
“Very digestible concepts and wonderfully concise.”
Monica · On my anxiety meditations
03
Choose one manageable step. Use The Behavioural Experiment to compare what you feared with what actually happened.
04
Return to The Evening Reflection. Review your own numbers on day 30, then carry the practice into your 90-day plan.
THE PRACTICE, UP CLOSE
Your first step, on paper.
From the Practice Workbook. Select the image to see the full page.
A suggested route, at your pace. About 20 minutes a session.
Watch a lesson
The Panic Protocol. See it in practice.
A sequence to learn before you need it. The Panic Protocol includes a 14-minute, 44-second lesson, guided audio, a wallet card and an optional workbook.
Watch this 53-second excerpt to get a feel for how I teach.
How the course began
It began with seven days of audio.
My first audio course took three months to create. It was a seven-day course for Insight Timer Plus subscribers. The response encouraged me to build Stoic Anxiety Mastery: a fuller video course, with guided practices and tools for everyday life.
These figures refer to my earlier seven-day audio course on Insight Timer. Rating recorded 17 October 2026. Separately, 101 people bought the first version of Stoic Anxiety Mastery.
The Stoic tradition
Philosophy you practise.
Optional course companions
Go deeper when you want to.
You can follow the video course one lesson at a time. These three course-exclusive books are optional companions for taking the practice further.
01
The Companion
33 pages to keep the Stoic ideas and practice sequences close at hand.
02
The Practice Workbook
37 pages for written reps: worked examples and worksheets for your own situations.
03
The Panic Workbook
25 pages to use alongside the Panic Protocol. Learn the practice before you need it.
Shown: actual course pages
OPTIONAL PRACTICE SPACE
A place to make it your own.
Prefer a digital journal? The Notion practice space gives you nine reusable templates for your own thoughts and situations.
Start with The Morning Check-In or The Evening Reflection. Use the 30-day checklist if a suggested route helps.
YOUR NOTION PRACTICE DASHBOARD
The blank dashboard, ready to copy. Select the image for a closer look.
The Morning Check-In
The Evening Reflection
Nine reusable journals · 30-day checklist · links to the course
COURSE CONTRIBUTOR
Allan John · What Is Stoicism?
Allan, the creator of What Is Stoicism?, has contributed meditations, Notion templates and guest teaching to Stoic Anxiety Mastery. His work offers another way to bring Stoic practice into everyday life.
“Knowing how anxiety feels, I thought Jon got this course spot-on.”
Allan John, on my seven-part anxiety meditation series, December 2021. Allan also contributes to Stoic Anxiety Mastery.
Inside the course
A clear place to begin. Room to go deeper.
Start with the welcome and the Panic Protocol. Work through the videos, try the guided practices and use the tools on your own situations.
If you like a schedule, follow the suggested 30-day route. There is no deadline. The review helps you compare your own numbers and notes; the 90-day maintenance plan helps you keep practising.
Explore the course below, including 25 videos with downloadable MP3s and transcripts.
Orientation
12 lessons and resources
Your welcome, baseline self-checks and optional practice tools.
- 1.1Welcome from JonVideo · 6:18
- 1.2How this course is structuredWritten guide
- 1.3Take the Burns Anxiety Inventory (baseline)Download
- 1.4Take the GAD-7 (baseline)Download
- 1.5Set up the Stoic Sage AIOptional AI tool
- 1.6Set up the Triple Column Coach AIOptional AI tool
- 1.7Download the CompanionDownload
- 1.8Download the Practice WorkbookDownload
- 1.9Download the Panic WorkbookDownload
- 1.10Download the Visual LibraryDownload
- 1.11The 30-day master checklistDownload
- 1.12A note on safety and scopeVideo · 4:43
The Panic Protocol
5 lessons and resources
Learn the sequence before a wave hits. Lesson, guided audio and wallet card.
- 2.1The Panic Protocol theory videoVideo · 14:44
- 2.2The Panic Protocol audioGuided audio
- 2.3The wallet crisis cardResource
- 2.4Using the Panic WorkbookWritten guide
- 2.5When to escalate to professional supportWritten guide
Week 1: Know the Hydra
6 lessons and resources
Understand what sets fear off and what keeps it going.
- 3.1The 4 Causes of AnxietyVideo · 25:57
- 3.2The 6 Things to Psychologically FlourishVideo · 27:27
- 3.3The Cognitive ModelVideo · 18:08
- 3.4The Exposure ModelVideo · 16:26
- 3.5The "High Five": Five Stoic Problems with AnxietyVideo · 9:19
- 3.6The Four Stoic AntidotesVideo · 13:26
Week 2: Guided practices
7 lessons and resources
Seven guided practices, from the What-If Scan to the Core-Fear Annihilator.
- 4.1The What-If ScanGuided audio
- 4.2Maxim CreationGuided audio
- 4.3The Sensation SweepGuided audio
- 4.4The View from AboveGuided audio
- 4.5Premeditatio MalorumGuided audio
- 4.6Amor FatiGuided audio
- 4.7The Core-Fear AnnihilatorGuided audio
Week 3A: Written practices
8 lessons and resources
Written practices with the Triple Column Technique, the Cost-Benefit Analysis and The Behavioural Experiment.
- 5.1Introduction to the practicesVideo · 1:23
- 5.2The Morning Check-InVideo · 9:10
- 5.3The Evening ReflectionVideo · 5:21
- 5.4The Triple Column TechniqueVideo · 12:12
- 5.5The Cost-Benefit AnalysisVideo · 9:03
- 5.6The Behavioural ExperimentLesson
- 5.7Past AuthoringVideo · 9:49
- 5.8Bonus: The Triple Column Coach AIOptional AI tool
Week 3B: Behavioural practice
4 lessons and resources
Build your Fear Pyramid and practise one level at a time.
- 6.1The Premeditation WalkthroughVideo · 9:30
- 6.2The Fear PyramidVideo · 7:31
- 6.3The AWARE ModelVideo · 12:56
- 6.4The Discard Anxiety JournalVideo · 3:48
Week 4: Integration
6 lessons and resources
Deep Acceptance and recorded masterclasses for your ongoing practice.
- 7.1Deep Acceptance: The PastGuided audio
- 7.2Deep Acceptance: The FutureGuided audio
- 7.3Goal Setting (Part One)Video · 1:03:04
- 7.4Goal Setting (Part Two)Video · 1:02:25
- 7.5Decode the Social MatrixVideo · 1:43:57
- 7.6Negative Thought LoopsVideo · 1:28:51
Day-thirty review
5 lessons and resources
Repeat the self-checks and compare your own numbers and notes.
- 8.1Why we re-testWritten guide
- 8.2Take the Burns Anxiety Inventory againDownload
- 8.3Take the GAD-7 againDownload
- 8.4Reflection promptsResource
- 8.5What to do if your score is concerningWritten guide
Graduation
6 lessons and resources
A letter from me and a 90-day maintenance plan to keep training.
- 9.1A graduation letter from JonLesson
- 9.2The 90-day maintenance planDownload
- 9.3Relapse signals: a one-pagerDownload
- 9.4When to seek more supportWritten guide
- 9.5Annotated reading listResource
- 9.6Stoic Vault invitation (optional)Resource
Anxiety Meditation Library
8 lessons and resources
Seven practices for the moments you need them: mornings, meetings, 3am and more.
- 10.0An introduction to the guided meditationsVideo · 0:35
- 10.1Morning Anxiety ProtocolGuided audio
- 10.2Pre-Meeting ResetGuided audio
- 10.3The 3am ReturnGuided audio
- 10.4Body Scan for Anxious TensionGuided audio
- 10.5Meeting the Feared OutcomeGuided audio
- 10.6Evening DecompressionGuided audio
- 10.7The Rumination InterruptGuided audio
Start with the course guidance and choose what fits.
Visual Library
5 lessons and resources
Wallpapers, reminder cards, Apple Watch faces and the A6 Panic Protocol cheat sheet.
- 11.1Desktop wallpapers (5K, eight designs)Resource
- 11.2Phone wallpapers and lock screens (eight designs)Resource
- 11.3Reminder cards (square, five designs)Resource
- 11.4Apple Watch faces and widget images (four designs)Resource
- 11.5Panic Protocol cheat sheet (A6)Resource
Student voices
The practice, in their words.
Reviews of my guided meditations. The seven-part anxiety series is included in Stoic Anxiety Mastery.
Monica
On the anxiety meditations
Lana
On the anxiety meditations
Anxiety meditation participant
Seven-part guided series
Meditation participant
On Let Go of What You Can't Control
Pricing
The whole course. Yours for life.
US$197 · One payment, not a subscription · Lifetime access
My one-to-one coaching is US$125 an hour. The whole course costs less than two one-hour sessions.
US$197
US dollars · one payment, not a subscription
25 videos
MP3 downloads and transcripts.
Practices for real situations
The Panic Protocol, seven guided drills and seven situational meditations.
Your written practice
Three workbooks, nine Notion journals and the 30-day checklist.
Tools to return to
Visual Library, two optional AI coaches and recorded masterclasses.
After the camp
Self-review, graduation letter and a 90-day plan.
30-day full refund. No explanation needed.
“Well planned out and thoughtful course. I will repeat it seasonally or as needed.”
Lana · On my anxiety meditations
You have 30 days to decide. If it is not for you, email jon@stoichandbook.co within 30 days of purchase for a full refund. No form, no explanation needed, and no attempt to talk you out of it.
Fit
Is this how you want to practise?
This course is for you if
You like Stoicism and want to use it. Fear keeps making decisions you would rather make yourself. You want a sequence to follow, with about 20 minutes for each session.
This course is not for you if
You want a drill sergeant or a promise that fear will disappear. If you are in crisis right now, get professional support first.
FAQ
Before you join
Stoic Anxiety Mastery
Your first rep is today.
You do not need to feel ready to begin. Open the first lesson and try the practice. Fear gets a vote, not a veto.
Go well,
Jon