Stoic Week 2023

I’ve finished my first ‘Stoic week’ last weekend, (an on and off line course that lasts for 7 days) and really enjoyed it.

My interest in Stoicism began in January, when I got a couple of books and later took an online training course.

The problem I had however, was that I didn’t really have a ‘model’ on which to base my practice, to put it simply, I didn’t know what practice should look like.

The Stoic week had a different topic per day, with background philosophy explained along with practical exercises to carry out daily.

Monday – we looked at the dichotomy of control, here we realise that we don’t need to try and control everything, in fact the only thing we can control is our response, reaction and actions following (or towards) not the situation itself, it frees up a lot of intellectual & emotional baggage.

Tuesday – we looked at emotions, especially negative ones, creating distance between our emotional responses to events, by zooming out we can create space between the situation and ourselves.

Wednesday – here we looked at the 4 virtues – courage, wisdom, self-control and justice.

This isn’t about having a Victorian puritanical attitude, but rather developing the knowledge and skills to be the best version of ourselves.

Thursday – caring for ourselves and others, caring for our wellbeing, and our compassion so we can begin to extend that out to our family, friends, community and eventually all humanity.

Friday – the bigger picture, this introduced the exercise of taking the view from above, a bit like the exercise we did on Tuesday, learning to change our perspective to see the bigger picture.

Saturday – ‘Stoic it up’ looking at leading a virtuous life and introducing the preferred indifferents.

Looking to build a good character, It’s here we begin to develop the practical skills in order to live like a Stoic.

Sunday – building your Stoic toolbox, putting the exercises into action, develop a daily practice to continue our Stoic practice when the week has finished.

I enjoyed participating in the Stoic week, although there is a lot to take in and put into practice during the 7 day period

To be honest, I was struggling to keep up with the pace of the week, to try and read through the materials, so the videos and audio recordings were a good way to absorb the information.

A week has now passed since the end of the ‘Stoic week’ and I’m feeling slightly more positive, and I now have a better idea, of what a Stoic practice looks like, and I’m maintaining my morning meditations and evening journal.

Lets see how things go…