Philosophical Exercises

Do you want to think about death intensely, every day, for a month straight? It’s not as morbid as it sounds. I’ve had the pleasure of participating in a 28-day workshop or “challenge” called “The Joyful Practice of Stoic Death Writing” 1 . I recommend it. E very day, we were sent ( via email ) a quote about death written by Marcus Aurelius, along with a few thoughts about this quote from the author of the workshop – stoic, writer & coach Kathryn Koromilas. In addition to those, there were always a few writing exercises & attention exercises to engage in, in order to internalize the quote and its wisdom. For instance, we were often asked to reformulate the quote with our own words, or to think to ourselves some kind of “ M emento M ori” during the day. Each email came with a countdown reminding us of the passage of time; “There are 28 days left” , “27 days left” , etc. This really puts you in the mood. The group of people who went through these exercises could spea...