Announcing Stoic Mindfulness and Resilience Training (SMRT) 2017

Enrolment is now open for the Stoic Mindfulness and Resilience Training (SMRT) 2017 online course.  This is a free eLearning course, which Donald Robertson has been running once or twice each year for Modern Stoicism since 2014.  You can access the preliminary area now and the four weeks of the course will officially begin on Sunday 16th July, when enrolment will close.  This year over 500 people enrolled within the first 48 hours after it was announced on social media.  Around 650 people are now enrolled and we anticipate that will have increased to nearly 1,000 by the course start date.
SMRT was designed as an alternative to Stoic Week, which is more intensive, and lasts for weeks rather than one.  It was modelled on training methods for other psychological skills, such as treatment protocols for clinical trials on cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT).  It is not a general introduction to Stoicism.  If that’s what you’re after try Stoic Week first.  However, if you want a “deep dive” into core Stoic psychological skills then SMRT may be just what you’ve been looking for!
Enrol on SMRT
Or follow this link: Enrol on Stoic Mindfulness and Resilience Training.
In the first year, over 500 people took part in SMRT and data was collected from participants, using the Stoic Attitudes and Behaviours Scale (SABS) and a battery of validated outcome measures of the kind used in research on CBT and positive psychology.  You can download a PDF of our report here showing the findings in detail:
SMRT Report
We were actually quite taken aback by the findings.   They are consistent with the data we’ve collected from Stoic Week participants over the years and we’d expect four weeks of intensive training to produce bigger improvements than one week.  However, the results from SMRT were more impressive than we had anticipated.   Improvements were found on the Satisfaction with Life Scale (27%), scale of positive emotions (SPANE_P, 16%), scale of negative emotions (SPANE_N, ­22.7%),
and Flourishing Scale (17%).  These changes were almost double the size of those found in Stoic Week.
This year SMRT will be essentially the same except that we’re hoping to include four live webinars, hosted by the course creator and facilitator, Donald Robertson.  Donald will be reviewing the materials for the week, providing tips, and answering questions you post in the the live chat area.  Don’t worry if you miss one of the webinars, though.  They’re not absolutely essential and you’ll be able to access them later to replay a recording.
Donald recently did a 20 minute Facebook Live session about Modern Stoicism in general, touching on Stoicon, Stoicon-x, Stoic Week and SMRT.  This Wednesday at 2pm Eastern Time, you’re invited to join him for a “pilot” webinar session using YouTube Live.  You can follow the link below right now to set up a reminder for yourself on the YouTube page.
YouTube Live Session
Donald will be testing the software out by giving a brief overview of SMRT and answering some of your questions about the course live on video.  A recording of this session will also be made available afterwards.