A weekly self-reflection question, by email
Leave an email address and one question arrives each week. It is free, and it needs no account. Each one is written by hand, with a few sentences from the Psychology Library and a link to a guided reflection if you want to bring a moment of your own.
What the first email says
This is the first question, as it arrives.
What do I keep replaying, and what do I hope replaying it will settle?
The library describes rumination and worry as “repetitive, hard-to-stop thinking about negative content.” It sets the two side by side: rumination circles back over the past and what it meant, and worry runs ahead into “what if.” The page rates it “Strong research.” That rating means the pattern has been tested many times in controlled studies, and the results hold up.
Read the library page: Rumination and worryWrite a moment out in the Overthinking reflection
How it works
- You type your email address, and the first question is sent to it right away. There is no account to make and no email to confirm first.
- After that, one arrives each week, counted from the day you signed up.
- Each email has the question, a few sentences on one pattern from the Psychology Library and how strong the research is rated, a link to that page, and a link to the guided reflection that fits.
- Every email ends with a link to stop, and a line for anyone who didn’t sign up for it: “Didn’t sign up for this?” One press on either, and this address isn’t emailed again. To start again later, sign in and turn emails back on from your account page.
- If you’re signed in, one button sends the questions to your account’s address, and you can turn them on or off from your account page.
Where the sentences come from
The questions are written by hand and sent in the same order to everyone. No AI writes them or picks them. Under each question, the sentences about the research come from one page of the Psychology Library, in its own words, with its research rating and what the research did not show where that matters. We add no studies of our own.
When the questions run out
When someone has had every question we have written so far, the emails pause and nothing is sent. If we write more, they arrive the same way, one a week.
What it isn’t
A question to carry is for reflection. It isn’t advice, therapy or a diagnosis, and it doesn’t tell anyone how to live. Plus, our paid plan, keeps what you write in the guided reflections, so later ones can build on it. It isn’t needed for this. What we keep, and for how long, is on the Privacy page.