Steiner described these in Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment and Guidance in Esoteric Training. They cultivate six qualities of soul that protect and steady anyone undertaking inner work — and together they are said to unfold the heart's twelve-petalled lotus. Esoteric development without them can unbalance the seeker; with them it stays healthy and grounded.
The six move through thinking, willing and feeling: control of thought and control of action give firmness to thought and will; equanimity, positivity and open-mindedness refine the life of feeling; and harmony brings the five into living balance.
Traditionally each exercise is taken up for about a month — the next added while the earlier ones are kept — until all six are carried together. This section advances a focus for you week by week, but the spirit is cumulative: once begun, an exercise is never dropped, only joined by the next.
They are deliberately undramatic. A few minutes, repeated daily, with patience and without expectation. The worth is in the steady effort itself, not in any visible result — a quiet strengthening that the rest of one's practice can rest upon.