Dear Stoics,

You’ve heard the line a hundred times in films, books, and stories told a bit too dramatically at dinner parties: My whole life flashed before my eyes. It’s what we say after a near miss on the road, or the undignified thirty seconds of choking on a piece of bread before coughing it out, and carrying on with the meal as if nothing happened. But have you ever asked yourself what would “your whole life in front of your eyes” actually contain? Surely not everything, not the dentist appointments, or the ten thousand mornings you can’t tell apart. More likely, it’s the highlights, the moments we keep inside and almost never revisit, because we’re busy, and who has time to sit around remembering?

The phrase life flashing before your eyes might be more than just a figure of speech. In 2022, a team of neuroscientists published something intriguing. An 87-year-old patient in Vancouver was being monitored by EEG after surgery, and he went into cardiac arrest with the monitor still running, which left the team with the first ever recording of a dying human brain. For thirty seconds before and after his heart stopped, the scans showed heightened activity in patterns associated with memory recall, meditation, and dreaming. The lead author, neurosurgeon Ajmal Zemmar, suggested the brain may be replaying important life events one last time.

It’s a single case, and the researchers were careful with their results, as the patient was elderly and had epilepsy, which is known to alter brain patterns. There’s no way to know whether he was actually seeing his memories or simply in a dream-like state. But either way, it’s a lovely thought that the mind’s last act might be to look through the album of our lives.

There’s a practical reason to open this album more often. Researchers at Rutgers stressed out some volunteers by filming them while they plunged their hands into icy water. Some then spent a short time reminiscing about a positive experience, while others recalled something neutral. The group who’d recalled happy memories felt better, and the expected rise in their stress hormone cortisol was only around 15%, on average, of the surge seen in the neutral group.

So here’s a thought: why wait for an emergency to remember the good times? This week, let’s all do the flash-before-your-eyes thing on purpose. No danger, no bread going down the wrong way, just a deliberate look at how much has already happened to you. When you have a spare half hour, sit down with a coffee and write down your moments as a list. The milestones will show up on their own, but remember to let some small wonders in too: the first time you swam in the sea, or the conversation in the kitchen at 2 a.m. that changed a lot for you. And hell, if you get into it, why not make it an album with photos and other souvenirs? You can also make a journal for it in Stoic, with attachments and timelines. Then store it somewhere you’ll find it — your highlights are for the days of doubt. When you open it, you’ll remember that the life flashing before your eyes is an amazing one.

Yours truly,
The Stoic App Team

There’s a reason filmmakers slow things down at the moment that matters most. Speed is how we get through the day, while slowness is how we notice it. This week, in our new weekly theme, On Slow Motion, we’ll practise the art of slowing down and visit the corners of life that only reveal themselves to those who aren’t rushing. The places we hurry past and the moments we’d give a lot to experience again at half speed deserve their own time for reflection.

Open the app each day this week for a new prompt on the theme. Take your time with it — that’s rather the idea.