PRACTICES

Act of kindness

Choose one concrete, freely offered act of kindness as a contemporary reflection inspired by Chesed.

How to begin: Choose one act you can finish today, and finish it unseen.

• Give something that costs you a little, not only what you were discarding.
• Act of kindness

A practice from the knowledge library · the library's own classification: Traditional teaching

This is a contemporary reflection inspired by Chesed rather than a traditional obligation, and it is offered as something ordinary rather than as a duty. Kindness given past your own limits, or used to avoid what you need, is not the practice described here: where you are exhausted, or where someone is harming you, safety and support come first and giving more is not required of you. Nothing here is a treatment or a substitute for care.

Cheshbon ha-nefesh: the daily accounting

A practice from the Mussar movement: at the end of the day, and briefly, you look back over what you actually did and decided against the one or two traits you are working on, and choose one thing for tomorrow. It is a record of what happened rather than a verdict on yourself.

How to begin: Five minutes, one fixed hour: what you decided today, one decision you would make differently, and one thing for tomorrow.

• Choose one trait for the coming fortnight rather than all of them, so the review stays small enough to keep.
• Write it as a description of what happened, not as a charge sheet: the tradition's own instruction is to work without harshness.
• A written card with one line per trait, filled in at a fixed hour in the evening.
• Working on a single trait over a set period rather than reviewing everything at once.

A practice from the knowledge library · the library's own classification: Traditional teaching

A self-accounting practice can turn into self-criticism, and for some people an evening review feeds rumination rather than settling it. Keep it to one or two lines, at a fixed hour, and not last thing at night. If reviewing your day leaves you berating yourself, stop the practice and speak to someone you trust or to a professional.

Compassion and balance journal

Journal about balancing kindness and limits as a modern application inspired by Tiferet.

How to begin: Write the two halves of a decision you are stuck on: what generosity asks for, and what a limit asks for.

• Where you have only been firm, name what kindness would add; where you have only been kind, what firmness would.
• Compassion and balance journal

A practice from the knowledge library · the library's own classification: Traditional teaching

This is a modern journalling application inspired by Tiferet rather than a traditional practice, and writing is not for everyone: if writing about yourself makes things heavier rather than clearer, leave it and do something ordinary instead. If balancing kindness and limits would mean staying in contact with someone who harms you, that is not a balance to strike, and safety and support come first. Where a low mood lasts for weeks, or comes with thoughts of harming yourself, speak to a doctor or a crisis line.

Ethical self-reflection

Reflect on generosity, boundaries, humility and responsibility without treating the Sefirot as diagnostic categories.

How to begin: Before deciding what to do next, write three things you already do that you would not want to give up, and one thing you keep doing that you would.

• At the end of one ordinary day, ask of a single exchange: was I generous here, was I fair, and where was the line?
• Ethical self-reflection

A practice from the knowledge library · the library's own classification: Traditional teaching

Reflection of this kind can turn into self-judgement, and the Sefirot are not diagnostic categories: nothing found by looking inward identifies a condition or a fault in you. If self-examination leaves you more critical of yourself rather than clearer, or if it becomes rumination, stop and return to something ordinary. Where a low mood does not lift, or comes with thoughts of harming yourself, speak to a doctor or a crisis line.

Healthy boundary reflection

Identify a respectful boundary as a modern reflective exercise inspired by Gevurah, not a traditional ritual.

How to begin: Write the sentence you would say, keep it under fifteen words, and say it once.

• Decide what you will do if the limit is crossed, before you need to.
• Healthy boundary reflection

A practice from the knowledge library · the library's own classification: Traditional teaching

Where someone is harming you, a boundary is not a reflective exercise: the first thing to reach for is support and safety, not a sentence to say. This is a modern exercise inspired by Gevurah rather than a traditional ritual, and it is not therapy. If setting a limit brings up fear, or if you cannot keep yourself safe, speak to a doctor, a domestic abuse service or a crisis line before working on the wording.

Hebrew-letter contemplative practices

Advanced practices associated with particular schools; not appropriate to present as generic beginner exercises.

How to begin: Look at one Hebrew letter long enough to notice its parts, without assigning it a meaning.

• Before practising anything of this kind, ask which tradition you would be practising inside, and who would teach you.
• Hebrew-letter contemplative practices

A practice from the knowledge library · the library's own classification: Traditional teaching

This is an advanced practice of particular schools, not a beginner's exercise, and it is not safe to treat it as one: it assumes a teacher, the language, and a setting that this app cannot supply, and it should not be attempted from a description. Contemplative work with letters, sounds and long repetition is not suitable for anyone in acute distress, in a crisis, or with a history of trauma or of dissociation, without an experienced teacher's supervision. Where you want to go further, look for a qualified teacher within the tradition; where you are struggling, speak to a doctor or a crisis line instead.

Keeping a gratitude journal

The practice studied in positive psychology: writing down a few things you are grateful for, either weekly or daily. Trials find small improvements in mood and wellbeing compared with control conditions, meta-analyses report small average effects, and several studies find no benefit or find the practice burdensome for people who are struggling. It is an exercise with modest evidence, not a treatment.

How to begin: Keep entries concrete and particular rather than broad, since specific events are what the studies asked for.

• Try once a week rather than daily, which some trials found worked better.
• Write an entry about a person rather than a thing once in a while, and consider telling them.
• Once a week, write three specific things you were glad of in the past week, each in a single sentence, and do not repeat the same ones by rote.

A practice from the knowledge library · once a week · the library's own classification: Empirically studied model

This is a reflective exercise with modest evidence, not a treatment for depression or anxiety. If you are in acute distress, or if being asked to feel grateful feels like a pressure or a demand to minimise harm done to you, stop and use something else, and speak to a qualified professional about what you are carrying. Never use it to talk yourself out of a situation that needs changing.

Loving-kindness practice

A Buddhist practice of deliberately cultivating goodwill, traditionally by repeating phrases first for oneself, then for someone easy to love, then someone neutral, then someone difficult. Modern clinical programmes use an adapted version, and the controlled studies report real but modest effects.

How to begin: Two minutes before a difficult conversation: four phrases for the other person, with no expectation attached to them.

• If the practice feels hollow for you, try it for someone easy first, then notice whether the resistance changes when the phrases turn towards yourself.
• Four phrases repeated quietly, beginning with yourself: may I be safe, may I be well, may I live with ease.
• Moving through the categories in order: yourself, someone easy to love, someone neutral, someone difficult, then all beings.
• If the difficult category becomes heated, returning to an easier one: the traditional instruction is to approach it last and lightly.

A practice from the knowledge library · the library's own classification: Traditional teaching

Intense material can surface, especially when the phrases are turned towards yourself or towards someone you are in conflict with. Shorten the practice if it distresses you, and work with a teacher who can adjust it. It is not a treatment for a mental-health condition, and it is no substitute for setting a boundary with someone who is harming you.

Mindfulness of breathing

A foundational Buddhist meditation practice: attention rests on the breath, and every time the mind wanders it is returned without reproach. It is taught in the Pali canon as part of a larger structure of sixteen steps, and simplified in modern teaching to watching the breath at the nostrils or the belly. Research on isolated breath practice shows modest effects, and much of the strongest evidence belongs to full multi-week programmes.

How to begin: Use the return of attention rather than the steadiness of attention as the measure of the session.

• Try ten minutes daily for a week before deciding whether it suits you, and keep a one-line note of what changed.
• Keep the practice in the structure it came from, so it does not become a technique stripped of its purpose, or a remedy for everything.
• Ten minutes: sit upright, rest attention on the breath at the nostrils, return it when it wanders, and count one exhale as one, starting again at ten.

A practice from the knowledge library · daily · the library's own classification: Traditional teaching

Generally safe, with real exceptions. Do not practise while driving or supervising children. For some people, particularly those with panic, trauma or a history of dissociation, sustained attention to the breath can increase anxiety or bring up difficult material; a shorter session, eyes open, or a different anchor such as the feet or sounds may be better. This is not a treatment for a mental health condition. If practice makes things worse, stop and speak to a qualified teacher or clinician.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction

An eight-week group programme developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts in 1979, teaching secular mindfulness practice to people living with stress, pain and illness. It is the most studied mindfulness programme, and the evidence is real but modest.

How to begin: Try a ten-minute body scan once a day for a week before deciding whether it suits you.

• Use the breath as an anchor when stress rises, rather than waiting for a quiet moment that never arrives.
• Body scan: lying down, moving attention slowly through the body.
• Seated meditation: attention resting on the breath, returned to it when it wanders.
• Gentle mindful movement, adapted to what the body can do on the day.

A practice from the knowledge library · the library's own classification: Scientific evidence

Mindfulness practice is not a treatment for a mental-health condition and is not a substitute for care. Intense or trauma-related material can surface: stop and seek a qualified teacher or clinician, and look for trauma-informed teaching if you have a history of trauma.

Noting and labelling thoughts

An insight practice in which whatever arises is quietly labelled, thinking, hearing, worry, and left alone rather than followed. It is taught in the Burmese Theravāda tradition, notably by Mahāsi Sayādaw, and appears in modern secular teachers' versions. Research on naming feelings is cited beside it and is not the same thing as the traditional practice.

How to begin: Use one plain word per experience, and keep the label light, since analysis turns the practice into thinking about thinking.

• Try noting during an ordinary task such as walking, where the pace keeps the labels honest.
• Watch for the practice becoming effortful or self-critical, and if it does, return to something simple like hearing.
• Ten minutes of noting: rest attention on what is most vivid, label it in one plain word, let it go, and begin again.

A practice from the knowledge library · the library's own classification: Traditional teaching

Generally safe, with exceptions. For some people, particularly with trauma, panic or dissociation, sustained labelling of inner experience can intensify distress; a shorter session, an external anchor such as sounds, or working with a teacher is better. Not a treatment for a mental health condition. Do not practise while driving or supervising children.

Prayer with kavanah

Hebrew prayer undertaken with intention; traditional practices may require community and teacher guidance.

How to begin: Before one prayer or one minute of silence, name what you are actually asking for.

• If you do not pray in Hebrew, say one line in your own language and mean it.
• Prayer with kavanah

A practice from the knowledge library · the library's own classification: Traditional teaching

Prayer in Hebrew, with intention, sits inside a tradition and usually inside a community, and parts of it assume both: where you have neither, this is not something to reconstruct alone from a summary. It is not a treatment and it is not a substitute for medical or psychological care. Where prayer brings up fear, guilt or distress, or where it is being used to hold a crisis at bay, speak to a rabbi or another qualified person, and to a doctor.

Reflection on devekut

Reflect on connection to God within the boundaries of one’s own tradition and beliefs.

How to begin: At the end of the day, name what your attention kept returning to, and what that suggests you are attached to.

• Choose one ordinary action tomorrow and do it as though it were addressed to something beyond yourself, in whatever terms you use.
• Reflection on devekut

A practice from the knowledge library · the library's own classification: Traditional teaching

Reflecting on closeness to G-d belongs inside your own tradition and beliefs, and this app is not a religious authority: it describes a practice rather than ruling on how it should be done. States sought deliberately, by fasting, by going without sleep or by long hours, are not part of this reflection and must not be added to it. Intensity is not the measure here: if the reflection leaves you ungrounded, frightened or unable to carry on with ordinary life, stop and speak to a qualified teacher or a clinician.

Slow paced breathing

Breathing deliberately slowly, at about six breaths a minute, which is the rate most studied for raising heart-rate variability and for settling the bodily stress response. Short-term physiological effects are reasonably well documented; evidence for lasting reductions in anxiety is modest. Fast breathing exercises and breath holds are different practices with real risks.

How to begin: Use it before something predictable and stressful rather than only in the middle of distress, so the body learns the shift in a calm setting.

• Pair it with an ordinary cue, such as before a meeting begins, rather than relying on remembering to do it.
• Keep it separate in your mind from fast breathing exercises, which do something different and carry different risks.
• Five minutes: in for four counts, out for six, through the nose, with a soft belly, and no breath holds.

A practice from the knowledge library · the library's own classification: Scientific evidence

Generally safe, with clear exceptions. Do not practise breath retention in water, while driving, or alone if you have not been taught it, because fainting carries a risk of drowning. Skip breath retention and consult a doctor if you are pregnant, or have epilepsy, a heart condition, glaucoma, or high blood pressure. Fast, deep breathing can cause panic, dizziness and cramping in some people. If any breathing practice makes you feel worse, stop. Not a treatment for a mental health condition.

Text study

Study with attention to historical context, translation and qualified commentary.

How to begin: Read one paragraph twice: once for what it says, once for what it assumes.

• Keep a page of questions rather than a page of summaries.
• Text study

A practice from the knowledge library · the library's own classification: Traditional teaching

This record is this app's own description and no source has been attached to it yet, so treat it as a reading rather than as settled teaching. Studying alone, without a teacher to check a reading against, can deepen confusion rather than settle it, and reading about a practice is not a substitute for care. If study brings up distress, or if the material you are working through connects to something traumatic, stop and speak to a qualified teacher or a clinician rather than pushing on.

The body scan

The first formal practice taught in mindfulness-based stress reduction: lying down, moving attention slowly through the body, noticing sensations without trying to change them. The trial evidence belongs to the full eight-week programme rather than to this exercise on its own, and for some people, particularly after trauma, a slow inward scan needs adaptation or a different practice.

How to begin: Use the scan to notice what is actually present in the body rather than to relax, since relaxation is a frequent side effect rather than the aim.

• If a full scan is difficult, shorten it to the feet, hands and face, which is a recognised adaptation rather than a failure.
• Keep a one-line record after each scan, so that a pattern over a fortnight is visible.
• Ten-minute scan: lie down, move attention from the feet to the head and back, pausing on each region, and stop early if it stops being useful.

A practice from the knowledge library · the library's own classification: Empirically studied model

Generally safe, with adaptations for some people. If you have experienced trauma, or you are prone to dissociation or to feeling detached from your body, a slow inward scan is not the best first practice; use a shorter version, keep your eyes open, and work with a qualified teacher or clinician. Not a treatment for a mental health condition, and not a substitute for medical care. Do not practise while driving.

The four foundations of mindfulness

The classical Buddhist framework for mindfulness, set out in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta: attending to the body, to feeling tone, to the state of mind, and to the patterns that shape experience. The modern secular programmes were adapted from this teaching, with the framework and its ethical context left out.

How to begin: Add one layer to a five-minute sit: the breath first, then the feel of the moment as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.

• Use the four as a short written review of a difficult day: body, feeling, state of mind, and the pattern underneath all three.
• Sitting with attention resting on the breath, sensing it at one place rather than following the story about it.
• Noting the feeling tone of what arises as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral, before naming the emotion.
• Noting the state of mind as it is, contracted or open, dull or alert, without trying to fix it.

A practice from the knowledge library · the library's own classification: Traditional teaching

Intensive noting can surface difficult material, and the classical form is traditionally practised with a teacher and on retreat. If you have a trauma history, look for trauma-informed teaching and keep sessions short. This is not a treatment for a mental-health condition, and a strong reaction is a reason to pause rather than evidence of progress.

The pre-mortem (prospective hindsight)

A short exercise for finding the risks in a plan before you commit: instead of asking what might go wrong, you state that it has already failed and write down why. The experiments behind it found that imagining an outcome as having already happened produced substantially more reasons than asking people to imagine it happening.

How to begin: Ten minutes is enough: write 'it is a year from now and this has not worked', then list everything that led there.

• Do it on paper rather than in your head: the point is to get past the first two obvious answers.
• For a decision you have been avoiding, run it on the change instead: 'I did nothing, and a year later this is why it did not work'.
• State that the decision or plan has failed, then write every reason it did, without editing.
• Mark each reason as something you could act on now or something you can only watch for.

A practice from the knowledge library · the library's own classification: Scientific evidence

This is a deliberately pessimistic exercise done once and then put down. If writing out the ways things could fail leaves you worse rather than clearer, stop it, and if a decision is weighing on you heavily, talk it through with someone you trust or a professional.

The self-compassion break

A short practice from the Mindful Self-Compassion programme with three parts: acknowledging that this is a moment of difficulty, remembering that difficulty is part of being human, and offering yourself kindness. The eight-week programme it comes from has trial support; the break alone has brief-induction studies rather than trial evidence, and for some people kindness towards themselves brings up grief or discomfort at first.

How to begin: Use the three parts in order, since skipping common humanity tends to turn the practice into self-soothing without perspective.

• Try it on something small first, so the difficulty is real but manageable while you learn the shape of it.
• If kindness brings up grief, stay with a hand on the heart and one plain sentence, and treat the grief as a response rather than as evidence that it is not working.
• Three minutes: name the difficulty, say inwardly that others struggle in this way too, then offer yourself one kind sentence with a hand on the heart.

A practice from the knowledge library · the library's own classification: Empirically studied model

This is a reflective practice, not a treatment and not a diagnosis. If self-kindness brings up strong grief, shame or memories of harm, that is a signal to work with a qualified counsellor or therapist rather than to push on alone. If you are in crisis, or having thoughts of harming yourself, seek help promptly.

The three-minute breathing space

A three-step exercise from the modern mindfulness programmes, made for a day with no room in it: arrive at what is actually present, gather attention on the breath, then widen out to the body and to what comes next. The evidence behind the programme it comes from is real; the evidence is for the eight-week programme, not for three minutes on their own.

How to begin: Attach it to one fixed point in the day rather than to a feeling, so it does not depend on remembering.

• Do not analyse what you find in the first stage: it is noticed and left, the three steps are the whole exercise.
• Use it when you notice mood dropping, which is what it was designed for.
• Three minutes: what is present now, then the breath, then the whole body and the next step.

A practice from the knowledge library · the library's own classification: Scientific evidence

Stop if the exercise leaves you feeling worse rather than steadier, and do not use it in place of treatment for depression or anxiety. If you have a history of trauma, a trauma-informed teacher is the right support, and a clinician is the right support for a condition.

Walking meditation

A formal walking practice from several Buddhist traditions, in which walking itself is the meditation: attention on the feet, the contact with the ground, or the breath coordinated with the steps. It suits people who find sitting difficult, and the small studies of mindful walking report effects similar to other brief practices.

How to begin: Use it when sitting practice is not possible or not appealing, since the tradition treats it as a full practice rather than a lesser one.

• Choose a route where you will not need to navigate, so attention is not split between the practice and traffic.
• Keep the pace slower than usual on the first attempts, which is where most people find the practice becomes possible.
• Ten minutes: walk slowly along a short route, attention on the contact of the feet, returning attention each time it wanders.

A practice from the knowledge library · the library's own classification: Traditional teaching

Take ordinary care: walking slowly can be unsteady for some people, so choose level ground, take a stick if you use one, and never practise in traffic or in an unsafe place. Not a treatment for a medical or mental health condition. If you have a balance disorder or a recent injury, adapt the practice or choose another.

Writing about your best possible self

A short writing exercise in which you describe, in detail, how your life would look if things had gone as well as they reasonably could, and what you would have done to bring that about. It is one of the more studied positive-psychology exercises, with small but consistent effects on mood in the trials that have tested it.

How to begin: Write in the present or past tense as if it had already happened, in the areas that matter to you, and keep it to what is plausible rather than perfect.

• Then read it back and mark the parts that are already true of your life, however small.
• If it suits you, take one line of it and turn it into something you will do this week.
• Fifteen to twenty minutes of continuous writing about a realistically good future and your own part in it, without stopping to edit.

A practice from the knowledge library · the library's own classification: Scientific evidence

For some people, writing about a good future brings up how far they are from it. If that happens, stop, and do it with someone to talk to if the gap feels painful. This is not a treatment for low mood, and it is not a substitute for care.

Write the standard, then take the first option that meets it

A decision stalls less often from a shortage of options than from not having settled what would make one good enough. Fixing the standard first turns an open search into a check.

How to begin: Write two or three things an option has to meet: the date, the price, the one quality that matters. Ignore everything else on purpose, and take the first option that meets the standard.

A practice from this app · 10 minutes, once · A practical application of satisficing as Herbert Simon described it, not a research finding in this form.

One page per decision: what you chose, and what you expected

A written record lets you check your own reading of a decision later, when your memory will have quietly rearranged it in favour of whatever you did.

How to begin: Half a page before you decide: the choice, the standard you are using, and what you expect to happen. Half a page a month later: what actually happened, and what you would weigh differently.

A practice from this app · 15 minutes, then 5 a month later · A record-keeping device. It rests on the well-documented tendency to misremember past judgements in the light of their outcomes.

The one aim you would still hold

When life feels pointless, the question is usually too large to answer and too vague to act on. Narrowing it to one aim you would hold with nobody watching makes it something you can test against how you actually spent last week.

How to begin: Write one aim you would still pursue if nobody knew you had it. Then write what you did last week that served it, and what did not. Neither list is a verdict: the second one is the information.

A practice from this app · 20 minutes · Built on the three-part account of meaning in life, in which purpose is one of the parts rather than the whole.

If the question of whether your life matters comes with thoughts of harming yourself, speak to a doctor or a crisis line now rather than working on it alone.

Prepare one boundary sentence and say it plainly

Most boundaries fail in the delivery rather than in the decision. A sentence prepared beforehand, without the case built around it, is far easier to say and much harder to argue past.

How to begin: Write one sentence saying what you will and will not do. No justification, no apology, no history. Say it once, and then let the silence sit rather than filling it.

A practice from this app · 10 minutes to prepare, one conversation · The wording is this app's. Setting limits is a common element of assertiveness training rather than a finding to be quoted.

Name what is here in three words

Putting a feeling into words is associated in the research with a smaller reaction to it. It is a small move, it takes under a minute, and it works before the story of why it is there.

How to begin: Three words for what you feel, then where you notice it. Nothing else, no explanation. If it helps, write the three words down and leave them there.

A practice from this app · 2 minutes · Described in the research on affect labelling, most often associated with Lieberman and colleagues (2007). It is an effect measured in studies, not a treatment.

Keep a note of what you actually did

Confidence follows evidence more reliably than it follows encouragement, and evidence is easy to lose. What you actually did this week is something you can read back when your own account of yourself says otherwise.

How to begin: Each evening, one line: one thing you did that took some courage or effort, however small. Read the whole list back at the end of the week, and add nothing to it.

A practice from this app · 5 minutes a day · A simple form of the record-keeping used in cognitive behavioural work. This version is this app's, and it is not therapy.

Attach the practice to something you already do

Practices are kept by where they sit in a day rather than by how much they are wanted. A new practice attached to an existing habit is followed through far more often than one that depends on remembering.

How to begin: Name one thing you already do at the same time daily: the first coffee, the walk to the station, brushing your teeth. Put the practice immediately after it, and do it even when it goes badly.

A practice from this app · 5 minutes, every day · The evidence for planning a new behaviour as 'when X happens, I will do Y' is substantial and reported in the research on implementation intentions.

Five minutes on an ordinary task

The quality of attention described as mindfulness does not need a cushion or a quiet room. A task you already have to do is somewhere to bring it, and the texts treat that as the same faculty at work rather than as a lesser version.

How to begin: Washing up, walking to the shop, or hanging out the washing: five minutes with your attention on what your hands and body are doing, and coming back to it each time it leaves.

A practice from this app · 5 minutes · The framing comes from the sources on sati, in which the quality is not confined to a sitting practice.

One small thing you can finish today

On a heavy day, doing one small finished thing changes more than a plan does, because it is evidence that action is still available before the mood has moved.

How to begin: Pick something that can be finished in ten minutes and that you will notice afterwards: the drawer, the message you have been avoiding, putting the washing away. Do the small thing rather than the important one.

A practice from this app · 10 minutes · Scheduling activity before the mood improves is a well-evidenced part of treatment for low mood. This is the everyday version of it and it is not a treatment.

If a low mood lasts for weeks, or comes with thoughts of harming yourself, speak to a doctor or a crisis line. This exercise is not a substitute for care.

Decide what forgiving does and does not mean here

Forgiveness gets tangled with going back, saying it was fine, or trusting again. Separating what you are releasing from what you are keeping as a limit is what makes it possible to do one without the other.

How to begin: Two short lists. What I am putting down: the carrying, the rehearsing, the case I keep prepared. What I am keeping: the limit, the distance, what I will not accept again. Neither list needs to be shown to anyone.

A practice from this app · 20 minutes · Forgiveness has been studied as a deliberate practice, and in that literature it is consistently described as separate from reconciliation.

Forgiving is not a reason to return to someone who has been violent or abusive, and it is not a requirement for healing. Where there is abuse, safety and support come first.