Six days · About five minutes a day
Close the Day
End the day on purpose: look back kindly, set down what you carried, and let the evening begin.
Your six days
- A quiet place to put the day down — Free in your browser
- Look back, kindly
- Return, without a verdict
- Set down what you carried
- Where the work stops
- Let it be evening
A taste of Day 1: A quiet place to put the day down
Welcome. Most evenings the day comes to bed with us, still replaying. Over six short sessions, we'll practise closing it on purpose. Tonight, we start by finding somewhere quiet to put it down.
For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire than into his own soul, particularly when he has within him such thoughts that by looking into them he is immediately in perfect tranquilityMarcus Aurelius · Meditations, 4.3
George Long, 1862
Marcus was an emperor with no quiet room to retire to, so he built one in his own attention. That's the idea here. You don't need a perfect hour or a perfect bedroom. You need a few minutes when you stop answering the day and let your attention come home. Tonight we won't review anything. We'll only practise stepping back from the day, the way you'd step out of a noisy room into the hall.
Try the reflection
Sit or lie comfortably, and let your eyes close or rest low. Notice that the day is behind you now. Let your breathing slow without forcing it. As thoughts of the day arrive, don't answer them. Just say to yourself: later. Then come back to the feeling of breathing. If it helps, imagine a door closing softly on a busy room. Take two and a half minutes.
One question to take with you
In a sentence: what was the loudest part of today?
Day 1 is free. Days 2–6 are planned for the iPhone app, coming soon. This is reflection, not medical advice.