Category: News

Support my work via Patreon

Stoic Therapy Toolkit Banner

Hi everyone,

Well, people keep telling me I should set up a Patreon page so I finally got round to doing that today and here’s the link…

Donald Robertson on Patreon

If you want to support my work on Stoicism and CBT, Patreon provides a convenient way of doing that.  I regularly get “tips” from people who have benefitted from my work, particularly the free resources I create online.  They range from one dollar to hundreds of dollars – people contribute what they’re able and I’m very grateful for everyone’s support.

At the moment, I’m busy putting the finishing touches to my forthcoming book How to Think Like a Roman Emperor.  Then I’ll be doing revised second editions of Build your Resilience (2012) and Stoicism and the Art of Happiness (2013) for Hodder.  (Believe it or not I don’t get paid for the revisions – turns out non-fiction writing isn’t as lucrative as people assume unless you’ve got a bestseller under your belt.)

I’m also creating a revised version of my flagship course, also called How to Think Like a Roman Emperor, which will be out soon.  In the meantime, I’ve just released a bunch of free mini-courses and downloads that you might be interested in, including the Stoic Therapy Toolkit (PDF) that people kept asking for.

New Stoicism Courses and Resources!

So check out my new Patreon page if you’re interested.  Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing more updates and resources there as well.

Thanks once more for all of your support!  

Donald Robertson Signature

New Elearning Site for Stoicism

Quick announcement explaining some changes to the site, and some news about elearning on Stoicism.

Hi everyone,

You may notice some slight changes over the next few weeks.  I’ve migrated all users from this site to a Teachable elearning site, which is on the subdomain:

learn.donaldrobertson.name

That performs much better, is more secure, and looks much nicer than our old WordPress elearning.  If you go there now, you should be able to log in.  Otherwise, just create a new account.  Please feel free to email me if you need any help.

You’ll find some new courses appearing there.  It’s already hosting our Crash Course in Stoicism, which over 1,200 people have already done.  It’s a free mini-course that is designed to take under ten minutes.  Also the Stoic Mindfulness and Resilience Training (SMRT) course for 2017, in which a whopping 1,850 people are taking part this year. Soon the new How to Think Like a Roman Emperor course will be open for enrolment.

Those of you who were following philosophy-of-cbt.com have now been migrated over to followers of this site, which is replacing the old WordPress.com one.  That domain is in the process of being diverted here.  Just in case you wonder what’s going on.

If you’re not already following this blog, you can do so by submitting your email below, and WordPress will notify you each time a new article is added:

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Also, if you want to subscribe to my email newsletter, which contains information new courses and free resources, etc., then submit your email here:

Anyway, as always, thanks for your support!

Regards,

Donald Robertson

The Stoic Week 2014 Handbook is Now Available

The Stoic Week 2014 Handbook is now available from the Modern Stoicism website.

Stoic Week 2014 Handbook Cover Design by Rocio De TorresThe Stoic Week 2014 Handbook is now available!  You can read it online in HTML or download the PDF version for mobile devices, etc., by visiting the Modern Stoicism elearning site created by the Stoicism Today team.

The Stoic Week 2014 Handbook on Modern Stoicism

We’re releasing the Handbook in advance so people have the opportunity to read the initial sections before Monday, when Stoic Week officially starts.

Please make sure you complete the online questionnaires before you begin reading the Handbook, though.  It’s really important that we collect data from participants in Stoic Week.  It will only take a few minutes.  Previous participants have told us they find it very interesting and useful to fill out the questionnaires and monitor their own progress.

Click on each link below in turn to open the form in a new browser window.  Please remember to use exactly the same name and email address for all questionnaires and to click “submit” when you’ve entered your responses.  You should receive an email confirming your responses for each form, within the next week.  This will also include some interesting notes on your scores and comparisons with previous student averages for the SABS.

  1. Stoic Attitudes and Behaviours Scale (SABS)
    This scale was developed by our research team and has gone through various revisions.  The items have been checked with academics for their relevance to Stoicism and revised based on feedback from hundreds of previous participants.
  2. The Flourishing Scale (FS)
    This brief scale provides a measure of general psychological wellbeing, such as your sense of having a meaningful life.
  3. Scale of Positive and Negative Experiences (SPANE)
    This brief scale measure a range of different emotions, like joy, contentment, anger, sadness, etc.
  4. Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS)
    This is another brief scale, designed to measure your overall level of contentment with life.

Thanks very much for taking the time to do this!

Starting Stoic Week 2014: Monday, Nov 24th

How to take part in Stoic Week 2014, via the blogs, without having to enrol on the elearning site Modern Stoicism – if you prefer doing it that way!

Stoic Week 2014 Handbook Cover Design by Rocio De TorresHi everyone,

Our Modern Stoicism elearning site will sometimes experience brief periods of down-time because of the large volumes of traffic.  We now have nearly 2,000 people pre-enrolled for Stoic Week 2014 – which is a lot!  If you want to take part, though, you’ll also be able to do it without even accessing that site.  (I call that “Plan B”.)  The first step is to complete the initial pre-study questionnaire forms below, if you don’t mind, so that we can gather data on the averages, and track the effects of Stoic Week again this year.  We will be making the whole Stoic Week 2014 Handbook available as a PDF in the next couple of days as well, on this blog, and on the official Stoicism Today blog run via the University of Exeter.

Complete the Stoic Week Questionnaires

It’s really important that we collect data from participants in Stoic Week.  Please help by filling out these online forms before you read the Handbook.  It will only take a few minutes.  Previous participants have told us they find it very interesting and useful to fill out the questionnaires and monitor their own progress.

Click on each link below in turn to open the form in a new browser window.  Please remember to use exactly the same name and email address for all questionnaires and to click “submit” when you’ve entered your responses.  You should receive an email confirming your responses for each form, within the next week.  This will also include some interesting notes on your scores and comparisons with previous student averages for the SABS.

  1. Stoic Attitudes and Behaviours Scale (SABS)
    This scale was developed by our research team and has gone through various revisions.  The items have been checked with academics for their relevance to Stoicism and revised based on feedback from hundreds of previous participants.
  2. The Flourishing Scale (FS)
    This brief scale provides a measure of general psychological wellbeing, such as your sense of having a meaningful life.
  3. Scale of Positive and Negative Experiences (SPANE)
    This brief scale measure a range of different emotions, like joy, contentment, anger, sadness, etc.
  4. Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS)
    This is another brief scale, designed to measure your overall level of contentment with life.

Thanks very much for taking the time to do this!

Preparing for Stoic Week 2014

Some information and useful links to help you prepare for Stoic Week 2014.

Stoic Week 2014 begins on 24th November.  You can register to take part just by following the link below to our e-learning site Modern Stoicism.

Create an account, if you don’t already have one there, and then enrol yourself on the Stoic Week course, where the Handbook will be published this year.

Enrol Here for Stoic Week 2014

Brace Yourselves MemeLast year, over 2,400 people participated in Stoic Week 2013, and this year about 1,200 of you have already enrolled in advance for our new e-learning site, Modern Stoicism.

The Stoic Week 2014 Handbook will be available very soon. We’re just putting the finishing touches to it. In the meantime, there are some things you might like to do to prepare for the 24th of November, when Stoic Week beings…

  • Read the sample chapter from Teach Yourself Stoicism on The Contemplation of Death.
  • Subscribe to our Stoicism Today blog, where loads of articles are about to be posted by different guest authors during Stoic Week.
    • Even better, start writing a short blog article on Stoicism yourself and send it to Patrick Ussher via the blog, to have it published during, or following Stoic Week 2014!
  • Join our Facebook group or follow Stoic Week on our Facebook event page.
  • Follow @Stoicweek on Twitter for updates and announcements.
  • Join our Google+ community.
  • Update your profile information on Modern Stoicism, and upload your own profile picture.
    • Tip: use your real name if possible.  It creates a much friendlier and more welcoming environment for others to know the name of the person they’re interacting with online.
  • Post an introduction about yourself to the Stoic Week discussion forum on Modern Stoicism, or comment on other people’s posts, e.g., say hello to people from the same part of the world who are doing Stoic Week.

As always, if you need any help or have any questions, just get in touch.

Regards,

Donald Robertson

Stoic Week 2014: How do I Participate?

How to enrol for Stoic Week 2014, which starts 24th November.

Stoic_Week_2014Stoic Week 2014 starts on November 24th.  Stoic Week is an international and online event – anyone can take part.  All you have to do is follow the Stoic Week 2014 Handbook for seven days, and try to live, to at least a small extent, in accord with some of the key teachings of the ancient Stoic philosophers, such as Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius.  Last year over 2,400 people took part in Stoic Week 2013, and another 500 people participated in the longer follow-up course, Stoic Mindfulness and Resilience Training.

All you have to do if you want to take part is register on our Modern Stoicism elearning site, which is hosting the course:

Register on Modern Stoicism

Then go to the Stoic Week 2014 page and enrol on the elearning course, by clicking the “enrol” button:

Stoic Week 2014 Course on Modern Stoicism

You can follow Stoic Week 2014 on social media via our Facebook page:

Stoicism Group on Facebook

You can also follow our Stoic Week Twitter account for updates and announcements:

@Stoicweek on Twitter

So there you go!  If you have any problems, just get in touch and we’ll help you.  If you’re not keen on enrolling on an elearning course, that’s okay, we’ll probably be publishing the new handbook as a PDF and EPUB for you to download anyway, so everyone can take part.  Please help spread the word!  Thanks for your support!

Donald Robertson

News: Stoic Mindfulness and Resilience Training

News: Update on Stoic Mindfulness and Resilience Training course online.

🔥 Quick update on Modern Stoicism: we now have 50+ people enrolled on new Stoic Mindfulness and Resilience Training course and about 500 registered users on website.

Modern Stoicism

Enrolment proper starts tomorrow, 12th May, and the course begins the following Monday (19th May).

 

News: Online Course on Stoicism

Update about the forthcoming e-learning course on Stoic practice.

Stoic Week REDUXHi everyone,

Another quick update…  We now have nearly 300 registered users on the modernstoicism.com e-learning site.

The site was created to host online courses about Stoicism and its application to modern living.  The first course will be a four-week basic training in core Stoic practices, currently entitled Stoic Mindfulness and Resilience Training.  It’s due to begin on 19th May, although we’ll be asking people to enroll in the week prior to that to make sure initial intake forms are completed in time.  If you’ve not already done so, you can register on the main website now and enjoy some of the free resources we’ve made available on the front page:

http://modernstoicism.com

We’ll be gathering data from participants before and after the four-week course, to compare results with those found in our previous studies.  The course will consist of readings, audio recordings, videos, and activities, designed to develop a specific set of key attitudes and behaviours associated with Stoic philosophy.

The course is still being developed and we encourage you to get involved by sharing your ideas.  The four sections we’re planning, as the general framework, are:

  • Introduction and Preparation.
    This will consist of a general orientation and preparation, as well as specific self-assessment and self-monitoring techniques, etc.  It will include some initial training exercises for mindfulness and living grounded in the present moment.
  • Stoic Values.
    This will focus on the role of values (virtues) in Stoic practice and psychological strategies for contemplating values and acting consistently with them, etc.
  • Stoic Mindfulness.
    This will focus on strategies associated with self-awareness and the self-management of troubling thoughts and feelings, etc.  It will include further training in mindfulness strategies and more specific exercises.
  • Stoic Resilience.
    This will focus on ways to consolidate learning and apply skills across a wider range of situations (generalisation of improvement), as well as maintaining improvements over the longer-term, and anticipating a range of future adversities.

The discussion forums are already open if you have any questions or comments about the project.  Some users are also working their own way through a revised version of the Stoic Week 2013 Handbook, which has daily readings and exercises.  If you want to join them, you can introduce yourself and post your comments on the following thread.

Stoic Week REDUX Discussion

Regards,

Donald Robertson