{"id":5785,"date":"2013-01-02T19:01:05","date_gmt":"2013-01-02T19:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.exeter.ac.uk\/stoicismtoday\/?p=370"},"modified":"2013-01-02T19:01:05","modified_gmt":"2013-01-02T19:01:05","slug":"and-your-favourite-stoic-exercise-is-the-retrospective-evening-meditation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/colabstaging.co.uk\/msbackup\/and-your-favourite-stoic-exercise-is-the-retrospective-evening-meditation\/","title":{"rendered":"and your favourite Stoic Exercise is …. The Retrospective Evening Meditation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u00a0Stoic Exercise deemed most useful, averaging \u00a0a 4.3 star rating (out of five) is<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Retrospective Evening Meditation<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the description from the\u00a0Stoic Booklet\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0(p. 13)<\/p>\n

Mentally review the whole of the preceding day three times from beginning to end,
\nand even the days before if necessary.
\n1.1. What done amiss?<\/strong> Ask yourself what mistakes you made and condemn (not yourself
\nbut) what actions you did badly; do so in a moderate and rational manner.
\n1.2. What done?<\/strong> Ask yourself what virtue, i.e., what strength or wisdom you showed,
\nand sincerely praise yourself for what you did well.
\n1.3. What left undone?<\/strong> Ask yourself what could be done better, i.e., what you should do
\ninstead next time if a similar situation occurs.<\/p>\n

This exercise also proved to be the most popular of the Stoic exercises in the booklet. Why not try it tonight?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The booklet also contains a longer version (pages 24-25 of the \u00a0booklet), complete with original Stoic references, as follows:-<\/p>\n

Key text one:\u00a0Seneca, On Anger<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u2018All our senses should be trained to acquire strength; they are by nature\u00a0capable of endurance, provided that the mind, which should be called daily to account for\u00a0itself, does not persist in undermining them [through improper use of the impressions]. This\u00a0was the habit of Sextius, so that at the day\u2019s end, when he had retired to his nightly rest, he\u00a0questioned his mind: \u2018What bad habit have you put right today? Which fault did you take a\u00a0stand against? In what respect are you better?\u2019 Anger will abate and become more controlled\u00a0when it knows it must come before a judge each day. Is anything more admirable than this\u00a0custom of examining the whole day? How sound the sleep that follows such self-appraisal,\u00a0how peaceful, how deep and free, when the mind has either praised or taken itself to task, and\u00a0this secret investigator and critic of itself has made judgement of its own character! This is a\u00a0privilege I take advantage of, and every day I plead my case before myself as judge. When the\u00a0lamp has been removed from my sight, and my wife, no stranger now to my habit, has fallen\u00a0silent, I examine the whole of my day and retrace my actions and words l I hide nothing from\u00a0myself, pass over nothing. For why should I be afraid of any of my mistakes, when I can say:\u00a0\u2018Beware of doing that again, and this time I pardon you\u2019?<\/p>\n

Key text two: \u00a0Epictetus, Key Discourses 3.10.2-3<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u201cAllow not sleep to close your wearied eyes,
\nUntil you have reckoned up each daytime deed:
\n\u2018Where did I go wrong? What did I do? And what duty\u2019s left undone?\u2019
\nFrom first to last review your acts and then
\nReprove yourself for wretched [or cowardly] acts, but rejoice in those done well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guidance: Having considered both of these, the evening meditation therefore
\nappears to be composed of three elements in Epictetus\u2019 example:
\n1. \u201cWhere did I go wrong in matters conducive to serenity and personal
\nflourishing?\u201d
\n2. \u201cWhat did I do that was unfriendly, or antisocial, or inconsiderate?\u201d
\n3. \u201cWhat duty was left undone in regard to my personal serenity and social
\nrelationships?\u201d
\nSeneca, on the other hand, described asking himself a slightly different set of
\nquestions, following the practice of Sextius:
\n1. \u201cWhat evils have you cured yourself of today?\u201d
\n2. \u201cWhat vices have you fought?\u201d
\n3. \u201cIn what sense are you better?\u201d
\n25
\nPresumably, therefore, if a philosopher concluded that he had acted badly or failed to
\nfollow his principles, on awakening the next morning he would take account of this
\nand redouble his efforts to prepare for similar challenges ahead.
\nThe Exercise: At night, before going to sleep, take 5-10 minutes to review the events
\nof your day, picturing them in your mind if possible. It\u2019s best if you can do this before
\nactually getting in to bed, where you might begin to feel drowsy rather than thinking
\nclearly. You may find it helpful to write notes in a journal at this time also. Try to
\nremember the order in which you encountered different people throughout the day,
\nthe tasks you engaged in, what you said and did, etc. You may want to approach this
\nas a way of strengthening your ability to recall memories. However, for Stoics, the
\nmost important aspect of the exercise is that you question whether you could have
\nlived more consistently in the service of the chief good, the cardinal virtues, and
\npersonal flourishing. Ask yourself the following questions (or questions similar to
\nthese):
\n1. What did you do badly? Did you do allow yourself to be ruled by fears or
\ndesire of an excessive, irrational, or unhealthy kind?
\n2. What did you do well? Did you make progress by strengthening your virtues?
\n3. What did you omit? Did you overlook any opportunities to exercise virtue or
\nstrength of character?
\n4. Consider how anything done badly or neglected could be done differently in
\nthe future [do this without criticism of yourself, but instead of the actions
\nthemselves]
\n5. Praise yourself for anything done well
\nIn doing this, you are also rehearsing the role of a friend and wise counsellor, toward
\nyourself, and that relationship should be kept in mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u00a0Stoic Exercise deemed most useful, averaging \u00a0a 4.3 star rating (out of five) is\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 The Retrospective Evening Meditation This is the description from the\u00a0Stoic Booklet\u00a0\u00a0(p. 13) Mentally review the whole of the preceding day three times from beginning to end, and even the days before if necessary. 1.1. … Continue reading “and your favourite Stoic Exercise is …. The Retrospective Evening Meditation”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1],"tags":[15,59,17,114],"class_list":["post-5785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stoic-week","category-uncategorized","tag-epictetus","tag-evening-meditation","tag-seneca","tag-stoic-exercises"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/colabstaging.co.uk\/msbackup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/colabstaging.co.uk\/msbackup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/colabstaging.co.uk\/msbackup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colabstaging.co.uk\/msbackup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colabstaging.co.uk\/msbackup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/colabstaging.co.uk\/msbackup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/colabstaging.co.uk\/msbackup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colabstaging.co.uk\/msbackup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colabstaging.co.uk\/msbackup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}