Stoic Snippets: Write Your Wrongs

Inspired by Seneca’s nightly reflections, this journaling session helps you review your day with honesty and self-compassion. Examine your actions, learn from them, and end with gratitude and clarity. All you need is a pen, paper, and a few quiet minutes to unwind.

Transcript

All right, If it isn't apparent from the title, This is a journaling session, So make sure you have a pen or paper or something to write your thoughts down with or on. The inspiration of this comes from Seneca, Who had a habit of keeping himself honest through journaling. If you don't know, He was a Stoic philosopher. I talk about him loads in my courses, So if you want to learn more, You can go check those out. But here's what he had to say, Want you to really listen before we begin. When the light of day has been taken away, And my wife has fallen silent, Aware of the habit that I have now formed, I examine my entire day and go back over what I have done and said. I hide nothing from myself, I pass nothing by. For why should I fear any consequence of my mistakes, When I can say, See that you don't do this again. This time, I forgive you. Ideally, This type of journaling is done at night, But it works fine in the morning, Too. I want you to start by closing your eyes and just casting your mind back to the day that's been, Or yesterday, If you're doing it in the morning. Just take a moment with those eyes closed and just scan through your day in an episodic way, So event by event, Coffee, Breakfast, Workout, Work, Commuting, Whatever it is. And as you build the structure of your day, Start to fill in the gaps. Where were you? What did you do? Who were you with? What were the conversations you had? What were the conflicts that arose? What made you happy? And probably more importantly, What made you sad? All right, Good. So you've got a pretty good picture of the day you've had. Now, Slowly blink those eyes open. And just for the next few minutes with the music playing in the background, I want you to write honestly about how the day could have been better, Or rather, How you could have been better. How could you improve on what happened? Yes, There's always two sides to every story. Fate has a hand in our lives, Too, But we can't do anything about other people's lives. We can't do anything about our own lives. We can't do anything about other people or fate. We can do something about ourselves. So really, The focus of the writing for the next few minutes is examining your day and highlighting the parts that you can change, That you would like to improve on. Okay, Over to you. And just remember this line from Seneca, Hide nothing from yourself. All right, You can slowly start to wrap up there. If you need more time, Just press pause and carry on. Just finish by thanking yourself for your honesty and your commitment to be better every day. And then bring some gratitude to the fact that guess what? You have a whole nother day to do it all again, And this time to do it better. Good luck out there, And I'll see you soon.