living like a stoic in the modern world

We recently concluded our Live Like A Stoic Week at SRU, where students and community members were invited to take part in this unique experiment. Participants met at the Old Stone House to contemplate this year's theme: Stoicism and Love.

In 2013 and 2014, over 2,400 people took part in Stoic Week internationally, following the online course, completing the wellbeing questionnaires, and discussing the week online.  Participants reported a 14% improvement in life satisfaction, a 9% increase in positive emotions (joy increased the most of all emotions, whilst optimism increased by 18%) and an 11% decrease in negative emotions.

Here’s what our very own SRU students had to say about the experience:

“Contemplating Stoic philosophy with my fellow students and professors has allowed me to reflect on some of the most important questions that are easy to lose sight of: what is it that's most important to me in my life? What kind of person am I, and what kind of person do I want to be? What is in my control, and what can I do to change it? What does it mean to be a human being, a member of a University, a town, a nation, and the cosmos, and what bearing does it have on how I should act? Exploring these questions with others before the sun rises at the Old Stone House has been a novel, invaluable experience that I will never forget.”
~ Spencer Knafelc (philosophy and psychology)

“Live Like a Stoic for a Week has given me the opportunity to take time out of a chaotic schedule, allowing me to take one step back to focus on the meaningful things in life; things like community and the cultivation of character. It taught me not to sweat the little things, to recognize what is within my immediate control and what things are not, allowing me to take life as it comes while making the best of whatever it presented to me. This all came about thanks to Dr. Winters who lead fellow students, community members, andI in exploring the ways of the cosmos in a unique setting, providing me with an invaluable experience that I won't soon forget.”
~Rena Alfonso (environmental studies and philosophy)

Click here to learn more about Stoicism.