“Now ordinary people are born forwards in Time, if you understand what I mean, and nearly everything in the world goes forward too. This makes it quite easy for the ordinary people to live, just as it would be easy to join those five dots into a W if you were allowed to look at them forwards, instead of backwards and inside out. But I unfortunately was born at the wrong end of Time, and I have to live backwards from in front, while surrounded by a lot of people living forwards from behind. Some people call it having second sight. ~ Merlin ”
I first discovered this in my friend's book 13 Holy Nights (see Mistletoe: The Power of Ritual). It seems there is little written about it online, so I wanted to share my own experiences (and provide a little guidance).
The reverse of how how I start my day (focused on the future), Ruckshau is a backwards review of my day went (focusing on the past). It's a practice I go through just before I go to bed.
Beginning with now, I write out a reverse chronological list of my day from bed to wake. From cradle to grave. From womb to tomb.
9PM: Go to Sleep
8:30: Shower & Brush
6:30-8:30: Watching Yellowstone with Debi
6: Dinner (What did I eat?)
5:30 Play Music (Piano or Ukulele)
5-5:30: Meditate
4-5: Bike Ride/Library
1-4: Work
12-1: Lunch (What did I eat?)
8-1: Work
7:30: Breakfast (What did I eat?)
6AM-8: Write/Read/Code
4-6AM: I failed to practice Who not How
Then I ask myself:
Wins: Did I succeed or learn something new?
Fails: Where I did I fail to deliver and why?
What impact did I make today?
What important tasks did I fail to complete?
What felt good about today? What felt bad?
If I had a do-over of today, what would I have done differently?
It's a way to close the book of my past self so I can get on with my future self.
It's one of the concepts behind The Merlin Principle: You do have the ability to relive your day backwards in time at the end of it.
If I were to integrate a Ruckshau practice earlier into my day, would I have taken different actions?
More follows (this is being edited)...
A very freeing, healing and strengthening exercise is the Ruchshau or the backwards review of your day.
Each night for five or ten minutes before you fall asleep, review your day backwards. Begin at the present moment and run the fill of your life on that day in reverse. Review the perceptions, thoughts, feelings, actions and interactions of all the hours of your waking day. You can focus on the central experiences or put some effort in to noticing the peripheral experiences. Here are a few examples:
I walked into town and passed a woman pushing a stroller but did not look at the baby.
I ate a hamburger and french fries for lunch - the fries were salty.
I worked on my big project but checked my email 3 times during the session. I felt restless.
The Ruchshau unwinds your experiences before they get rigidly consolidated into memory during sleep. This frees your soul from the weight of the earthly as it enters into spirit while your body sleeps.
I once heard a wise man share he would go backwards through the day and recall what he was doing at 10 minutes past the hour. If I have been in public, maybe at the grocery store, I will remember five faces I saw - this is a peripheral memory release.
All of us will sleep better physically and spiritually if we create and follow a nightly rhythm of sleep preparation. Consciously chosen rhythm is deeply nurturing to our being. Without rhythm we become prey to distraction and indulgence, to stress and anxiety. Make the nightly backwards review part of your bedtime ritual.