Member Reviews

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This isn’t the first book I’ve read on Stoicism, but it’s the first one that helped me understand it better, and I can’t thank the author, Dr Polat, enough!

We’ve got 90 days of journaling prompts that are separated into three categories/courses:
A: Examining The Inner Critic,
B: The Road To Acceptance,
C: Living With Virtue.

To be complete transparent, I did not do all of the journaling exercises, and I did not do one each day. But you know why? I just wanted to keep on reading and then “get back to it later because this is so interesting”. Sooo in my books, that’s a win! BUT!! I WILLLLL do these prompts, I promise!

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I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are my own."

I did 6o days worth of journaling, and I found it very insightful. I do love stoic teaching and find it really helps with my mindfulness. I suffer from anxiety and found nightly journaling very therapeutic and relaxing.

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Journal Like a Stoic is a self-help journal that is based on the teachings of Greek Stoics. It is a manual for understanding Stoic philosophy and a journal for those who would like to put Stoicism into practice.

This is a 90-day program to learn how to live in a stoic way. The first part is theoretical, and you learn about Stoicism. The second part is a journal composed of three parts. Each day, you read quotes from Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and other Stoic philosophers and think about a specific topic.

Highly recommended to all interested in Stoic philosophy and who like to write a journal to improve themselves.

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A thought provoking, introspective journey. The older I get, the more I embrace the fundamental importance of journaling and taking a pulse on how I am feeling, especially in times when things feel a little out of control.. After taking time to work through and reflect on the exercises in this book, I realized how much more stoic I've become in recent years and how freeing it is been for me. I also enjoyed and appreciated historical references and the quotes from the ancient stoics.

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In short, I loved this journal.

I am new to stoicism and found this journal to be helpful in understanding what it was (and wasn't) as well as a pragmatic guide to be a more intentional person. Because of that, this would be a great gift for someone whether they're a committed stoic or just exploring.

It's important to point out that this isn't a run of the mill journal you pick up in a grocery store. It's meant to be a program that you actually follow in order to find peace and acceptance in your life. The 90 day program guides you through thought- and reflection-provoking prompts that require more depth than responding with the high and low points of a given day.

I appreciated the introduction section for providing a background to a philosophy that I'd heard in passing but didn't truly understand. Although it's not particularly flashy, it is in-depth and easy to understand. I was expecting the overview to be haughty or inaccessible in its complexity, and that wasn't the case at all. It provided a solid foundation for me to proceed through the journal portion of the book.

The journal portion itself is divided into sections with their own focus. The prompts also increase in complexity, so you're able to flex the newly-developed skills by design. This section is broken into thirds, with a different reflective focus to each 30-day period. I love that each day's prompts are connected to a quote, which helped expose me to stoic philosophers for further reading.

Overall, I was very pleased. I think it would be particularly effective in a physical format, as the virtual version I reviewed wasn't formatted for traditional journaling. Nonetheless, it was incredibly useful and definitely meets its purpose.

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Interesting introduction to the world of Stoic philosophy -- not a deep dive. The journal begins with a brief history of Stoicism to prep the reader for the second part of the book, the journal. The journal prompts typically consist of quotes and background info, then ask the reader to reflect and answer specific questions. I have not completed all 90 days but find it fascinating -- a glimpse into the distant past and the issues raised by philosophers like Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius that are then applied to our very modern lives and concerns. This is a very practical, hands-on way to apply Stoic principles to our daily lives. I am very interested to see how my journaling evolves over the 90 days.

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A lovely journaling book. The questions are thought provocative and invoke a lot of thought. I would recommend this book to those who love to journal and go inward.

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To say I enjoyed this book is somewhat of an understatement. I enjoyed and appreciated the writing prompts. They are thoughtful, purposeful, and clear. If you are wishing to learn a great deal about Stoicism, you may want to consider supplementing this book. This book is more about Stoicism in practice. It's possibly my favorite journaling book. I highly recommend it.

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Stoicism has been a huge topic the last five or six years becoming even more popular since 2020. Although I personally always loved great thinkers. Although, to some, they feel basic. I think they're brilliant and love questions. There is no shortage of great questions and quotes in this guide to journaling. I enjoyed the internal holiday this brought me on. As an avid journaler, I purchased a separate journal just for this book. I didn't want to mix some of this great content and thought with my everyday basic musings. In addition to being very thought-provoking, I think that's what also be good for creatives that are stuck. I plan to buy this for a few of my friends that I think will benefit just from becoming unstuck with the fantastic content and questions that are in this book . You have topics and questions like goodbye external validation. Swapping petty for productiveness these are things that invoke all sorts of other questions in your brain. Those are just a couple of so many great thoughts. Some tasks seem like they'd have nothing to do with your life until you start writing about the question or task posed and then you come up with some pretty impressive words.

This is a great book for journalers, writers, creatives and anybody that's just feeling stuck in life. This was fun to do and I love the thoughts and writing mixed with some conversations that brought out of me.

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Stoicism is a philosophical approach that teaches the ability to cope with life and its difficulties through ethical principles rooted in nature. It teaches the ability to deal with self-destructive emotions and and behaviours, from ancient teachers like Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius.

The book is organized like a 90 day course with a quote from one of the ancient philosophers, a question or situation to reflect upon and room to journal and work through the issues. Of course, as it is a digital copy I obtained my own journal.

Taking time to think deeply about my own thinking patterns, beliefs and behaviour, and then journaling about it has proved to be extremely helpful. The teachings and beliefs of the Stoics are meaningful to me and they just feel right; it works for me and brings a meditative peace.

Today when the world is a stressful place and traditional religion has largely failed us, I feel like it is important to have something to turn to that assists in restoring peace and acceptance to the mind. If this sounds appealing to you, then I highly recommend this book.

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I stumbled upon the study of Stoicism just over a year ago and found it intriguing but when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I got more serious about it. Having a good grasp of what I can and cannot control became very important. Now that I'm cancer-free, I've gotten away from studying but Journal Like a Stoic is helping me to get back into the groove.

The book is broken down into two parts: first, a brief history of the philosophy so the reader is prepared for the more hands-on bits in the second part, the actual journaling prompts. I was happy with the amount of history given - not a tremendous amount - because my real interest is the journaling. Was not disappointed with the prompts, for sure. Polat shares quotes and background and then lays out the prompts which helps to keep it all in context. And don't skip around! These are meant to be tackled in order.

Now that I've gone through with reading it all, I'm ready to get down to business with the writing and reflecting bits.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

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I don't know how much I believe that Stoicism is a good philosophy to live by. To find out, I would have to know enough information to start evaluating.
This Journal did a great job of introducing the philosophy without getting lost in weeds of "Who's who", listing people who followed Stoicism, I don't care that something worked for someone else, I need it to work for ME. So I was attracted to a journal, as its going to be more personal that the histories I've seen online before.
The first portion of the book is background of how the philosophy developed. I can see why this is included, it explains why the philosophy is what it is. The majority of the page count is journal pages, 90 prompts with a page-and-a-half of writing space (I have the ebook, so I'm using an old notebook).
The prompts get more complex throughout the 90-days, so going in order is recommended. For example, the idea of "you are in control of your thoughts" comes up a few times, but with different focus and context.
Highly recommended book for anyone interested in Stoicism and needs a place to start.
**I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

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Journal like a Stoic, this journal gives a crash, crash course with some of the key points introducing the subject of Stoicism in the first half. The second half has Qs - journaling prompts accompanied by Stoic quotes/thoughts and such.

To fully embrace the subject though you will have to delve deeper in reading the actual Stoic writings separately.

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Journal Like a Stoic by Brittany Polar, PhD is equal parts an introduction to Stoicism and a personal 90-day journal practice. Polar writes that by the end of 30 days the reader will understand how mental clarity and self-respect lead to inner peace and self-acceptance. I am about 30 days into my journal practice and appreciate that each day provides a reflection from a different philosopher and includes more than one journal prompt. This is done so that the reader can respond to the prompt that most speaks to them.

As someone who is generally aware of what stoicism is as a school of philosophy and some of the major thinkers and leaders in the field, I found myself learning even more about stoicism's application to mental health and well-being which was a nice surprise.

Thank you to the author and publisher for the e-arc copy!

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This is a day-by-day book meant to help you take stock of your life and be happier and more intentional on the daily, all as guided by Stoic (in the classical sense of the word) philosophy. Polat lays out a brief history of Stoicism and 90 days of journaling prompts, 2 (or so) per day, each relating to a quote by a great Stoic philosopher.

The prompts themselves are thought-provoking and useful, but I found that the day-by-day aspect of this program was slightly overwhelming, and, as an adult with ADHD, difficult to stick to, even with her tips for consistency at the beginning. If you're a neurotypical person whose brain can focus on and follow through on something for longer than, say, 24 hours, you might get a lot out of this. As it is, me having the attention span of maybe three goldfish put together when not hyperfixating, it just didn't work. That's not to say that the book is bad, because it's not - just that these sorts of exercises (do daily ones) are not necessarily ones that work for my brain. It is what it is.

But if you're interested in growing yourself and Stoicism as a philosophy, I'd check it out. Thank you to Netgalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

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