Nepsis (“watchfulness” or “sobriety”) is the Orthodox practice of keeping watch over the thoughts that enter into our minds and hearts – “guarding the soul.”
The Philokalia describes the human being as a fortress, always under attack by robbers and thieves waiting to plunder. They enter into the fortress by the doors and windows of our soul – the five senses.
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”
1 Begin with Prayer
Begin each day in Christ. As soon as you wake and before doing anything else, pray
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy on Me a Sinner.”
In this way, your mind and your heart will be oriented towards Christ from the very beginning, before the assaults of mundane concerns, which invade your stillness and disturb your dispassion – your “apatheia.”
From this moment on, you will begin your watch.
2 Watch Your Thoughts
The Fathers say sin enters in stages:
temptation→ assent→ surrender→ captivity → passion.
“Cut off the roots of our sins and not merely their fruits”
– St. John Cassian
Sin is easiest to deal with at the very beginning, when we first feel tempted.
“Assent” is the stage in which sin fools the mind into dialoging with the temptation. This, in turn, leads to “surrender” to the sin. Once we have surrendered once, we become a captive to this habitual sin, until it finally becomes a passion we are addicted to.
3 Lean Not on Thy Own Understanding
It’s important to simply recognize the temptation and discard.
By no means try to argue with the temptation. This is how the evil one tries to deceive you — through a clever argument. Instead, simply dismiss these thoughts before they enter the stage of assent, and eventually to surrender.
Remember humility. Never rely on your own discernment, or think that you are too clever to fall prey to the evil one’s arguments.
Don’t go it alone. Consult your spiritual father, make frequent confession, seek the counsel of the saints, and above all seek Our Lord in prayer.
4 Silence and Stillness
Modern life is full of noise and distraction – flooding the mind with endless, trivial information. This is the opposite of Nepsis.
Try adding a “social media fast” to your prayer and fasting routine. Put your phone down unless it is absolutely necessary, and check notifications once a day.
Work in silence, rather than having a podcast or YouTube on in the background.
Set aside ten minutes each day to sit in silence.
5 Pray without Ceasing
Whether you are driving, working, or even doing the dishes, continually pray. This will draw your mind back to Christ.
Make prayer the “background noise” of your life, rather than distractions. In this way, it is more difficult to hide your daily activities from God, or to allow bad thoughts into your heart.
“…take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all who dwell upon the face of the earth… Watch, therefore, and pray at all times.”
– Luke 21:34-36
6 End with Prayer
End each day with prayer and reflection. Ask yourself:
When did my watchfulness waver?
When did I allow the passions to make their way inside the fortress of my soul?
How did pride, resentment, lust, or distraction sneak in through tiny doors?
“Attention must go forward and observe the enemies like a scout, and it must first engage in combat with sin, and resist the bad thoughts that come to the soul. Prayer must follow attention, banishing and destroying at once all the evil thoughts which attention previously fought, because by itself attention cannot destroy them.”
– St. Symeon the New Theologian
(Published with permission from our spiritual father)