> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://wiki.stoicfellowship.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://wiki.stoicfellowship.com/wiki/exercises/perspective-mortality-and-impermanence.md).

# Perspective, Mortality, and Impermanence

Practices that correct perspective through scale, mortality, and change

## What These Exercises Train

These exercises change the scale, time horizon, or object of attention so an immediate concern can be judged more accurately. They distinguish the choosing self from externals, return attention to the present, and examine human affairs within change, mortality, history, and the larger whole.

## When to Use Them

Use these practices when one concern fills your field of view, when the past or future overwhelms the present, when an external change threatens your sense of self, or when mortality and impermanence can clarify how to live now.

## Exercises in This Section

| Exercise                                                                                                           | What It Does                                                                                          |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [Circumscribing the Present](/wiki/exercises/perspective-mortality-and-impermanence/circumscribing-the-present.md) | Limit attention to the present interval in which judgment and action are possible.                    |
| [Circumscribing the Self](/wiki/exercises/perspective-mortality-and-impermanence/circumscribing-the-self.md)       | Locate the moral self by separating the faculty of choice from four surrounding circles of externals. |
| [Contemplate Impermanence](/wiki/exercises/perspective-mortality-and-impermanence/contemplate-impermanence.md)     | Attend to change and the temporary nature of people, objects, and circumstances.                      |
| [Memento Mori](/wiki/exercises/perspective-mortality-and-impermanence/memento-mori.md)                             | Remember mortality to correct priorities and act well within life's limit.                            |
| [View from Above](/wiki/exercises/perspective-mortality-and-impermanence/view-from-above.md)                       | Imagine human affairs from a wider spatial and historical perspective.                                |


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