The Three Anxiety Traps: A Stoic Practice For Meeting Fear - by Jon Brooks

COURSE

The Three Anxiety Traps: A Stoic Practice For Meeting Fear

With Jon Brooks

Anxiety can turn a cinema, a conversation or a simple decision into an emergency. I know that from experience. For years I left places early, rehearsed every sentence and treated the feeling as evidence that something was wrong with me. This six-lesson video course looks at three habits that kept that cycle running: treating anxiety as a personal failure, obeying every urge to avoid and trying to eliminate the alarm altogether. Through an edited interview series with Mike Slavin, who appears throughout as the interviewer, you will learn to recognise these traps, understand how they narrow your choices and find a safer, more deliberate response. Mike participated in the original recording and has given permission for his recorded audio and video contribution to be published in this course. The course draws on Stoic practice and my own experience. It is educational, not therapy or medical treatment. It may suit you if anxiety makes you shrink in social situations, overthink ordinary moments or avoid things you care about. By the end, you will have a simple way to meet an anxious moment: notice the impression, pause before treating it as an instruction, and choose one wise, manageable action.


Meet your Teacher

Jon Brooks is a meditation teacher, writer and long-term practitioner of Stoicism. His work focuses on closing the gap between understanding Stoic ideas and using them in daily life. In this course, he draws on his own experience of anxiety to explore how fear, avoidance and self-judgement shape the choices people make.

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6 Days

43 students

5.0 stars

7 min / day

Anxiety

English


Lesson 1

When The Alarm Takes Over

Anxiety can narrow attention until escape feels like the only available move. This lesson uses Jon's experience of leaving a cinema and struggling in social situations to examine the difference between fear, uncertainty and the alarm that takes over.

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Lesson 2

The Glass Wall

Wanting to act is not always the same as being able to act when anxiety is loud. Through the image of a glass wall, this lesson explores the painful gap between intention and action, and why relief after leaving can sit beside disappointment.

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Lesson 3

The Personal-Failing Trap

An anxious response can quickly become a verdict about your character. This lesson examines the personal-failing trap and shows why adding shame and self-judgement to the first feeling makes an already difficult moment harder.

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Lesson 4

The Avoidance Trap

Avoidance often brings immediate relief, which is exactly why it becomes persuasive. This lesson explains how repeatedly withdrawing from safe situations can strengthen the alarm and reduce the range of choices you feel able to make.

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Lesson 5

The Elimination Trap

Trying to eliminate anxiety can turn every anxious feeling into an enemy. This lesson introduces the elimination trap and a more workable relationship with the alarm, using the image of a guard dog that is attempting to protect you.

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Lesson 6

From Mind Blank To Courageous Action

A mind blank can feel like proof that a conversation has failed. This final lesson shows how honest disclosure can keep connection alive, then widens the practice into one central question: what small, wise action would you choose if anxiety were not making the decision?

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