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   13 barn owls in a trenchcoat (hauntedowlbear@eldritch.cafe)'s status on Friday, 26-Jan-2024 22:28:21 JST 13 barn owls in a trenchcoat

   This winter's array of problems is starting to put a strain on even the weapons-grade keeping-my-shit-together techniques I internalised from Stoic philosophy.

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     13 barn owls in a trenchcoat (hauntedowlbear@eldritch.cafe)'s status on Friday, 26-Jan-2024 22:49:42 JST 13 barn owls in a trenchcoat

     in reply to

     • Lunar 🛸 ♾

     @lunarloony

     It's a more philosophically contextualised version of the kind of thing cognitive behavioural therapy tries to do, but I found that context particularly helpful.

     Without that context, it's basically addressing any situation on the basis of whether it's something I can affect practically - and if so, doing the necessary thing to move the situation on in the direction I want - and otherwise addressing my feelings about it so they don't overwhelm me. But the philosophical and historical context is what gives me the tools and frames of reference I use to actually do that successfully.

     I did a couple of Donald Robertson's remote courses when he was teaching at Exeter University, including the free annual Stoic Week. Previous handbooks and course materials are free to download from https://modernstoicism.com/stoic-week/ (2015 was a good one, IIRC.)

     Robertson is also cool because he's happy to ban alt-right tools from his online spaces, occasionally with pertinent historical footnotes. (There was a whole flurry of MRA types very committed to "this is manly philosophy for emotionless manly men who are also very white" around about the time I was engaged with it, so that was great.)

     This Teach Yourself book he published is a really approachable summary (the ebook has an extra chapter vs the print edition, if you decide you'd like to read it): https://donaldrobertson.name/stoicism-and-the-art-of-happiness/

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     Lunar 🛸 ♾ (lunarloony@dosgame.club)'s status on Friday, 26-Jan-2024 22:49:44 JST Lunar 🛸 ♾

     in reply to

     @HauntedOwlbear I am curious about said techniques. Generally pretty good at keeping myself together, but it's been a bit more difficult lately for various reasons