One of the things Greg and I have learned—both through our own relationship and through years of talking with students and workshop participants—is that most conflict doesn’t happen because people lack good intentions.

More often, it’s because we don’t know what to do in the moment.

It’s easy to recognize, after the fact, that we should have paused, listened more carefully, or chosen our words differently. It’s considerably harder when we’re frustrated, hurt, or convinced we’re right.

That’s why we created the Reduce Conflict | Build Connection Workshop. We wanted something practical—something people could actually practice before the next difficult conversation, rather than simply reflect on after the last one.

Join Us Live for a Preview of the Workshop

Three Stoic Shifts to Stop Reactive Conflict and Build Real Connection

📅 Friday, July 10th
🕙 10am CT
📍 Live Right Here on Substack

This interactive workshop is designed for individuals and couples who want to interrupt emotional escalation, communicate with greater discipline, and create more stable, intentional relationships.

Rather than talking about conflict in the abstract, we’ll work through practical tools that you can begin using immediately—in conversations with a partner, family member, colleague, friend, or anyone else who matters to you.

A Preview of the Three Stoic Shifts

During the workshop, we’ll practice three simple but surprisingly powerful habits.

The Stoic Pause

Before responding, learn to recognize the space between what happens and how you choose to respond. We’ll work through a practical Impulse Audit that helps identify your own conflict triggers and retrain your first response.

The Clarity Filter

Not every thought deserves to become words. We’ll introduce a simple filter—Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it helpful?—that helps remove accusation, exaggeration, and unnecessary escalation so conversations become clearer instead of more heated.

The Control Shift

Perhaps the most Stoic exercise of all is learning to distinguish what belongs to us from what does not. Together we’ll work through the Control Circle, focusing attention on our own judgments, choices, tone, and actions rather than trying to manage another person’s feelings or behavior.

A Sneak Peek

We’ve attached the one-page guide we’ll be using during the workshop so you can see how practical these ideas really are.

It’s intentionally simple.

But the value isn’t simply reading it.

The value comes from practicing these shifts together, working through real examples, and learning how to apply them in the moments that matter most.

Whether your goal is improving your marriage, navigating family relationships, communicating more effectively at work, or simply becoming a steadier human being, these are skills that improve with practice.

We hope you’ll join us on Friday, July 10 at 10am Central as we share a bit more information and work through them together.

As always, we’ll leave plenty of time for questions, discussion, and conversation. Some of our favorite moments come from hearing your experiences and thinking together about what philosophy looks like in everyday life.

We hope to see you there.

Stoic Heart® Three Stoic Shifts To Reduce Conflict And Build Connection

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The Stoic Heart® helps individuals and couples navigate the complexities of modern relationships using the timeless principles of Stoic philosophy. We provide the tools for disciplined communication, emotional self-mastery, and deeper, more intentional connections in a variety of settings, from home to work to the wider community. We apply Stoic practice to help others live more in harmony with nature.

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One of the things we’ve come to appreciate most over the past several years in our work and the past several weeks in publishing our Substack is that The Stoic Heart® has never been about simply broadcasting ideas or talking about ourselves. For both of us, this work has always been about connecting with others, building meaningful relationships, and creating thoughtful conversations.

Every week, through our essays, podcasts, dialogues, and workshops, we try to explore what Stoic philosophy actually looks like when it meets the realities of ordinary life: relationships, work, frustration, uncertainty, loss, joy, and the ongoing project of becoming a better human being. And while things like writing posts and recording podcasts allow us to share our thoughts, some of our favorite moments have come from hearing your questions, reflections, and stories in return.

So we’re hosting our first live conversation as something just a bit different.

Join Us For A Live Stoic Heart® Gathering on Substack

📅 Friday, June 20 at 12pm CT
📍 Live Right Here on Substack
🎙️ a casual conversation, community gathering, and Ask Me Anything (AMA)

Whether you’ve been with us since the beginning, attended one of our past workshops, heard us at Stoicon or other venues, or have only recently discovered the work of The Stoic Heart®, we’d love to spend some time together.

We’ll talk a bit about who we are, how this idea and process came to be, and what we mean when we say that our goal is to help people put philosophy into practice. We’ll share some of the experiences that shaped our own paths to Stoicism, why we continue to find it valuable, and why we think ancient philosophy still has something important to say about modern life.

Most importantly, though, we’d like to hear from you.

Bring your questions. Ask about Stoicism, relationships, workplace challenges, our writing process, balancing scholarship with everyday life, or anything else you’ve been curious about. If you’ve ever wanted to ask us something after reading a post or listening to a podcast episode, this will be your opportunity.

A Preview of What’s Ahead

We’ll also spend a little time talking about some of the projects and programs we’re developing for the months ahead.

In July, we’ll be offering another session of our live workshop based on Three Stoic Shifts to Stop Reactive Conflict and Build Real Connection. Together, we’ll explore practices like the Stoic Pause, the Clarity Filter, and the Control Shift — not as abstract theories, but as concrete habits that can help us navigate disagreements with greater steadiness, discipline, and goodwill.

Then, in August, we’ll turn our attention to the challenges of work and professional life with a workshop built around our new Diagnostic Audit to Reduce Friction and Frustration in the Workplace. Through a series of practical exercises, participants will learn to distinguish between what they can and cannot control, examine the stories they tell themselves about conflict, and reclaim attention for what matters most in their daily work.

Both workshops expand upon the ideas introduced in our Stoic Heart® Guides and give participants the opportunity to practice applying these tools to their own real-world situations. We’ll share a little more about each of these programs during the live session and answer any questions you might have about how they’ll work.

And, as a small thank you for joining us, everyone who attends the Substack Live event will receive a sneak peek at the workshop materials — as well as a special discount if you decide to enroll.

Becoming Part of the Community

Many of you already know that The Stoic Heart® is made possible through the support of our subscribers. Paid subscriptions help us continue creating essays, podcasts, dialogues, workshops, and educational resources that make philosophy more accessible and practical.

In addition to supporting the work itself, paid subscribers receive a number of extra opportunities to engage more deeply with the community, including:

• access to our weekly subscriber Q&A and discussion thread;

• invitations to exclusive live gatherings and member conversations;

• early access to selected workshop materials and downloadable practice guides;

• subscriber discounts on all future Stoic Heart® Academy courses, workshops, coaching sessions, and educational offerings;

• and, access to quarterly live community conversations where we can explore philosophical themes in greater depth together.

We’ll talk a little more about these during the live event, but mostly we want this first gathering to be a chance to meet, connect, and enjoy a thoughtful conversation with people who share an interest in living more deliberately.

We Hope to See You There

The Stoics often emphasized that philosophy is not something we do alone. We become better through dialogue, friendship, mutual encouragement, and the shared work of examining our lives. That’s what we hope to cultivate in this space.

So, if you have an hour to spare on Saturday June 20th at 12pm CT, pour yourself a cup of something, settle into a comfortable chair, and join us.

Bring a question — or simply bring your curiosity.

We look forward to spending the time with you.

The Stoic Heart® helps individuals and couples navigate the complexities of modern relationships using the timeless principles of Stoic philosophy. We provide the tools for disciplined communication, emotional self-mastery, and deeper, more intentional connections in a variety of settings, from home to work to the wider community. We apply Stoic practice to help others live more in harmony with nature.

The History and Framing of It All

There’s a particular kind of energy that comes from sharing work with someone you truly trust — especially when it’s something you were genuinely called to do.

I often say that I was born to teach, and that every day is a good day to learn something new. It may sound simple, but it’s at the core of how I approach my work, and my life. I’ve been fortunate to find someone who understands that in the same way and who shares that commitment as part of the foundation of the life we’ve built, and continue to build, together.

As we were reflecting on this recently, Greg and I realized that we have been teaching, speaking, and leading workshops for quite a long time — 54 years combined. During those years, we’ve worked both separately and together in classrooms, workshops, and public conversations — and in places as varied as farm fields, kitchens, libraries, prisons, and even an old castle or two.

What began for each of us as individual pursuits led to parallel pathways with enjoyable overlaps and points of intersection. And over the course of our marriage and building our businesses together, has since become a powerful and intentional shared practice.

Over time, we’ve also found that we do our best work not just alongside one another, but in collaboration with the people who show up ready to engage, reflect, and try something different.

With that in mind, we’re happy to share that we’ve built an intentional home for our Stoic Heart® programs — and have launched our Stoic Heart® Teachable Academy.

About The Stoic Heart® Teachable

Simply put, this is where our workshops, courses, and coaching will live going forward. It gives us a way to bring everything together in a space that reflects how we actually teach while also creating a community for others who want to engage with the work and share ideas.

Our first online Teachable workshop is open for registration, with a live event on Saturday, May 16th:

Stop Reactive Conflict and Build Real Connection — In Real Time

We ran this session last month on a different platform, and it sold out in ten days. The May 16th workshop builds on that same foundation — working through the core shifts that help people interrupt reactive patterns and respond with clarity when it matters most.

If you’ve been following along, this is the work you’ve seen us refining over time. If you’re new here, it’s a good place to step into it.

We’re also continuing to offer private coaching for those who want more focused, direct work:

Stoic Heart® Private Coaching

These sessions allow us to work closely with individuals and couples to apply the same principles in a more tailored way.

In private coaching, we can build on work from a course or workshop, or to focus directly with individuals and couples on specific challenges — where the details matter, and where real change tends to take hold.

What’s Next

Whether you’re interested in an upcoming program, or simply want to follow along, we invite you to check out the site and share your feedback.

We’re looking forward to building this next phase with you.

As always, we’re glad you’re here.

The Stoic Heart® helps individuals and couples navigate the complexities of modern relationships using the timeless principles of Stoic philosophy. We provide the tools for disciplined communication, emotional self-mastery, and deeper, more intentional connections in a variety of settings from home to work to the wider community. We apply Stoic practice to help others live more in harmony with nature.