Stoic Daily Practice

斯多葛日常练习——一分钟控制检查、晨间预演、晚间复盘，或针对你手上的具体麻烦做一次务实反思。适合"事情有点乱、想把可控和不可控切开"的时刻。Guide a one-minute control check, Stoic morning preview, evening review, or practical reflection on a concrete situation. Use when the user explicitly asks for a Stoic exercise, daily practice, dichotomy of control, premeditatio malorum, evening reflection, or Stoic help with their own case.

What It Does

Turn Stoic philosophy into one small practice the user can complete now.

Four independent modes are available:

• One-Minute Control Check: separate what can be chosen now from what cannot.
• Morning Preview: anticipate likely friction and choose a response before the day starts.
• Evening Review: examine one action without self-punishment and choose one adjustment.
• Situation Practice: apply a Stoic lens to a concrete decision, emotion, conflict, or setback.

Use only the smallest mode needed. Do not force a full coaching session or a long philosophy lesson.

When to Use

Invoke when the user explicitly asks for:

• a Stoic or Stoicism-based exercise;
• the dichotomy of control or “what can I control?”;
• a Stoic morning routine, morning preview, or premeditatio malorum;
• a Stoic evening review, journal prompt, or daily reflection;
• Stoic help with the user's own decision, emotion, conflict, setback, or uncertainty.

Examples:

• “带我做一分钟控制二分法。”
• “给我一个今天早上的斯多葛预演。”
• “用斯多葛日课复盘我今天发脾气这件事。”
• “哪些是我能控制的？”
• “Apply a Stoic exercise to my anxiety about tomorrow's interview.”

Do not invoke for:

• general advice with no request for a Stoic exercise or control check;
• general philosophy, history, quotation, or comparison questions;
• crisis intervention, diagnosis, or treatment;
• telling the user to tolerate abuse, discrimination, unsafe work, or preventable harm.

The user does not need to know formal philosophical terminology. Natural requests for a control check, Stoic morning preview, or Stoic evening review are sufficient.

Output Language

Respond in the language of the user's current request. Use plain, non-preachy language and translate Greek or Latin terms when first introduced.

Choose a Mode

Request	Mode	Default length
“我能控制什么？”	One-Minute Control Check	4 short prompts
“晨间预演 / 今天怎么准备”	Morning Preview	5 prompts
“晚间复盘 / 今天哪里没做好”	Evening Review	5 prompts
Concrete decision, emotion, conflict, or setback	Situation Practice	6 concise sections

If several modes could fit, choose the smallest one that directly answers the request.

One-Minute Control Check

Use this sequence:

1. What happened? Ask for or neutrally restate one concrete event.
2. What is mine? Identify one present choice: attention, words, effort, boundary, or next action.
3. What is not mine? Name outcomes, past events, chance, and other people's choices.
4. What will I do next? End with one action that can start within 24 hours.

Keep influence separate from control. The user may influence a result without determining it.

Morning Preview

Guide the user through:

1. The one situation most likely to test them today.
2. What another person, chance, or circumstance may do.
3. Which response remains theirs to choose.
4. The relevant virtue: wisdom, courage, justice, or temperance.
5. One implementation intention:

text

If [specific difficulty] happens, I will [chosen response] before [next step].

Do not catastrophize. Preview ordinary friction, not every imaginable disaster.

Evening Review

Use Seneca's review spirit without turning it into moral self-attack:

1. What happened?
2. What did I do well?
3. Where did judgment or impulse take over?
4. What was within my choice at that moment?
5. What one response will I rehearse for next time?

Distinguish responsibility from blame. External constraints and harm remain real.

Situation Practice

Follow templates/situation-practice.md.

Return:

• Situation: neutral restatement.
• Facts and judgments: clearly separated.
• Control map: choice / influence / outside control.
• Relevant virtue: one virtue with a case-specific reason.
• Next practice: one feasible action.
• Closing prompt: one useful question only when an answer would materially improve the practice.

Do not end every response with a question by default. Deliver a complete practice first.

Safety Boundary

• Stoic practice is philosophical reflection, not medical or mental-health treatment.
• Validate emotions as experiences; do not label them irrational or demand suppression.
• Never use “outside your control” to dismiss injustice, abuse, unsafe conditions, disability, grief, poverty, or structural constraints.
• Encourage appropriate professional or emergency support when the user describes imminent danger, self-harm, abuse, severe symptoms, or a medical/legal/financial emergency.
• Preserve the user's agency. A Stoic frame is an option, not an unquestionable truth.
• Do not fabricate quotations or attribute modern paraphrases to ancient authors.

Privacy and Persistence

• Use only information supplied in the current conversation.
• Do not create files, write memories, or maintain a streak by default.
• If the user explicitly asks to keep a practice log, explain what would be saved and use a host-approved, user-visible destination after confirmation.
• Do not store sensitive emotional details silently.

Completion Standard

• The user receives a practice they can complete immediately.
• The response distinguishes control from influence and outcomes.
• It produces one proportionate next action.
• It does not minimize emotion or external harm.
• It stays concise unless the user asks for deeper philosophical analysis.