MyStoic — Support

The three moments

Each day has three readings. Morning · Prepare looks ahead to the day, Midday · Retreat is a two-minute pause, and Night · Review looks back before you sleep. Today's screen highlights the moment that fits the time of day, but you can open any of them whenever you like.

There is a reading for every date of the year, 366 in all, so the same date always brings the same three passages, unless you change which texts you read (below). A short passage opens whole. A long one opens on its heart, at most three sentences, word for word, with "…" where it starts or stops inside a sentence, and the summary under it says it covers the whole passage. Tap Read the whole passage for all of it. To keep a passage, tap the Save star under it; saved passages are listed in Study → Saved passages.

Where the words come from

Every passage is word for word from a public-domain English translation: George Long's Meditations, Discourses and Enchiridion, and Aubrey Stewart's translations of Seneca, in the editions prepared by Standard Ebooks. Under each passage, a short summary labeled Our summary, in plain words says the same thing in modern English. The themes, summaries, questions and study guide are written by us, and are always marked as ours.

To read only certain authors, open Settings → Reading and turn any of the four books off: the Meditations, the Discourses, the Enchiridion or Seneca's Dialogues. A reading from a book you've turned off is replaced by one from a book you kept, still the same on the same date, and one book always stays on. The study guide and the library still show all of them. Reading text size, in the same section, makes the passages larger without changing the rest of the app. To send a passage to someone, tap Share under it: MyStoic makes a card with the words and who wrote them, and includes the text for apps that only take text. A very long passage goes on the card as its opening sentences, marked […]; the text carries all of it.

The journal

Each moment starts with How are you coming in?: tap Grateful, Steady, Anxious, Upset, Angry or Tired, or skip it. Past days in the Journal show what you picked. The morning then asks for three intentions, one thing in your control and three things you are grateful for. If you're stuck, Give me three fills the intentions or the gratitude with starters from a list of forty each; tap it again for others, and anything you wrote yourself stays. Give me one does the same for the thing in your control. Midday asks what is disturbing you, and whether it is Mine or Not mine to control, the distinction Epictetus opens the Enchiridion with. At night you check off the morning's intentions and write what went well and what to improve. Your writing is kept as you type; when you're finished, tap Done at the bottom of the page and you're back on Today with that moment checked. Past days are in the Journal tab, under a count of the last 30 days: days with an entry, days with all three moments, and how often each mood came up. When you've written several days running, it also shows how many days in a row; missing a day only restarts that number, and the 30-day count keeps everything else.

To lock past entries, turn on Settings → Privacy & your data → Lock the Journal (with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode). The lock also covers "A year ago today", exporting and Delete My Data. Today's writing stays one tap away, so a reminder always opens straight onto the page. If your iPhone has no passcode, the lock can't work and turns itself off rather than shutting you out.

This week and Your Year

The laurel beside the MyStoic title on Today opens This week. It has one question for the week, the same from Monday to Sunday, with room to answer it over the days; your answer is kept with the day you write it. Below that is a Stoic Week: seven practices in seven days, each with a passage, begun whenever you like. Tap Begin the week when you've done the first practice, then mark each day after it; a missed day simply waits. The laurel shows how far through the week you are, and how many weeks you have finished.

Your Year (in the Journal tab, part of MyStoic Pro) counts the year from your journal on your iPhone: days written month by month, days with all three moments, your longest run, how many intentions you checked off, how often what disturbed you was yours to control, and how you came in.

Dictation

Every box on a moment page has a microphone, so you can speak the whole page and then tap Done. The three intentions and the three things you are grateful for each take one line: say or type all three, separated by commas (“family, friends, a good night’s sleep”), and they fill in as 1, 2 and 3 underneath. Tap the microphone and talk. The words appear in italics while you speak; tap the check to keep them or the cross to discard them. Dictation runs on your iPhone. If it says your language has no on-device voice, turn on on-device dictation for your language in iOS Settings, or type instead.

If you declined the microphone or speech recognition, turn them back on for MyStoic in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security.

Reminders

Turn reminders on for any of the three moments in Settings → Reminders, and set the time for each. The defaults are 7:00 in the morning, noon and 9:00 at night. Each reminder carries that day's theme and author. A reminder is skipped on a day you have already done that moment. Reminders are set two weeks ahead each time you open MyStoic, so if you haven't opened it in a fortnight they pause until you do. If iOS has notifications off for MyStoic, the app shows a button that opens the right screen in Settings.

To check that reminders reach you, tap Send a test reminder under the reminder times. One arrives about five seconds later; lock your iPhone to see it on the Lock Screen. Tapping any reminder opens today's page for that moment, even if the reminder is from yesterday.

Widget and Siri

Add the MyStoic widget to your Home Screen or Lock Screen to see the reading for this moment of the day. It changes on its own in the morning, at midday and in the evening, follows the texts you keep on, and opens that moment when you tap it. If it says to open MyStoic, open the app once and it fills in.

You can also ask Siri for today's reading in MyStoic, or to open my morning, midday or night in MyStoic. Both are in the Shortcuts app too.

Free and MyStoic Pro

Today's three readings, the journal, This week, the study guide and exporting your journal are free, every day, and stay free.

MyStoic Pro adds the complete library, the Meditations, the Discourses, the Enchiridion and eleven works of Seneca, to read straight through and to search; every day of the year's readings, to read ahead or look back (Readings for another day on Today); and Your Year. There are two ways to get it, and both open the same things: a yearly subscription whose first week is free if you haven't had the trial before, or a one-time lifetime purchase. The App Store shows the price in your currency before you buy.

Restoring, cancelling and offer codes

On a new iPhone, open Settings → Subscription → Restore Purchases, signed in with the same Apple Account. To cancel the yearly plan, use Settings → Subscription → Manage Subscription, or your Apple Account's subscriptions in iOS Settings; Pro stays on until the end of the year you paid for. To avoid being charged after the free week, cancel at least 24 hours before it ends. The lifetime purchase has nothing to cancel and restores the same way. If you were given a code, use Settings → Subscription → Redeem a Code. Refunds are handled by Apple, not by us.

Stoic reflections

On iPhones with Apple Intelligence turned on, the night review offers Reflect with today's readings. Write a little about your day first. The reflection is written on your iPhone, labeled as machine-written, and kept only if you add it to your review. If you don't see the button, your iPhone does not support Apple Intelligence or it is turned off in iOS Settings.

Exporting and deleting

Settings → Privacy & your data → Prepare Export gives you your whole journal as JSON and CSV files. Settings → Privacy & your data → Delete My Data removes every journal entry and your saved passages from your iPhone and turns reminders off, after asking you to confirm. Neither touches your purchase.

Privacy

No account, no analytics, no tracking, and nothing you write or say leaves your iPhone. The full detail is in the privacy policy.

Still stuck

Write to support@norvela.app. It helps to include your iPhone model, your iOS version and the app version from Settings → About.