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Slowing Down the Mental Chatter
For the days when your mind will not stop talking. Each day gives you one small way to notice the noise, let it pass, and come back to what is in front of you.
Mindfulness · Mindfulness · Stress · one to-do a day · you choose how many days
The first seven days
- Day 1Sit for two minutes and count your breaths from one to ten. When you lose count, start again at one.
- Day 2Pick one ordinary sound near you, a fan, traffic, birds, and listen to it alone for one full minute.
- Day 3Each time a thought pulls you away today, silently label it "thinking" and return to what you were doing.
- Day 4Eat one meal or snack with nothing else going on. Notice the taste of the first three bites.
- Day 5Set a timer for three minutes and watch your thoughts go by as if they were cars on a road. You are on the sidewalk.
- Day 6Walk for five minutes and name what you see, in your head, as you pass it: tree, mailbox, door.
- Day 7Before you reply to any message today, take one slow breath first.
Further into the year
The to-dos keep changing as the year goes on. A few from later in this theme:
- Day 30Sit quietly for five minutes and, whenever a thought appears, say to yourself "not now" and return to your breath.
- Day 60Spend two minutes noticing the space between objects instead of the objects themselves.
- Day 120Turn a doorknob, a faucet, or a light switch slowly today and feel the mechanism move.
- Day 240Close your eyes on a bench, in a waiting room, or at your desk, and count five breaths before opening them.
- Day 365Take a breath so slow that you can hear it, and then take another.
How a challenge works
A Theraglee challenge is a theme with one small to-do for every day of a year. You choose how long yours runs, anywhere from a week to the full year, and each day you get the next to-do: something that takes a few minutes and fits inside an ordinary day. Tick it off when it is done. Nothing is scored and nothing is lost if you miss a day; the next to-do is simply waiting when you come back.
Challenges come with a free Theraglee account, which never asks for a card. Your progress stays private to you.