Free for iPhone, Apple Watch and CarPlay
Twenty knots. Twenty quiet repetitions.
A century ago, Émile Coué asked people to tie twenty knots in a piece of string and say one simple sentence as they counted them, each morning and each night. Twenty Knots keeps that tradition: record your affirmation once in your own voice, and it plays back twenty times, at home, on your wrist or in the car.
The formula
Tous les jours, à tous points de vue, je vais de mieux en mieux.
Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.
The practice, as Coué taught it
No visualisation scripts, no streaks to protect. Just one sentence, said the way he described it.
On waking
Before you get up, while you are still drowsy, start your twenty knots. A gentle reminder arrives at the time you choose.
Twenty times
Record the formula once in your own voice, or choose a ready-made one. The app plays it twenty times, one knot each, so you never have to count.
Without effort
Coué asked for a simple, almost mechanical voice, loud enough to hear yourself. Trying hard works against you. Let the words do the work.
At night
Repeat it as you settle into bed, just before sleep. Twenty knots again, then rest. That is the whole method.
The man behind the method
Émile Coué, the pharmacist of Nancy
Émile Coué (1857 to 1926) was a French pharmacist who noticed that the way he spoke to his customers about their remedies seemed to change how they felt. He went on to study hypnosis and, in Nancy, developed a simple practice he called conscious autosuggestion, which drew visitors from across Europe and America.
His central idea was that imagination, not willpower, shapes how we act and feel. When the two pull in opposite directions, imagination tends to win. So rather than straining to force change, Coué taught people to plant a gentle, general suggestion and repeat it until it settled in.
He was always clear that he healed no one himself. In his words, each person carries the means of their own improvement; he only showed them how to use it.
From the journal
The first articles are on their way.
Keep the knots with you
- Record once in your own voice and hear it twenty times
- Playlists: line up as many affirmations as you like, each with its own count
- Coué’s formula in English and French, in male and female voices and a range of accents
- Apple Watch and CarPlay, for a walk with AirPods or the drive to work
- Works with no signal: everything is stored on your device
- Free, with no ads, no account and no in-app purchases