Category: News

Hi 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!

Stoic Week 2014 begins on 24^th 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

Last 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 24^th 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 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