The Examen, as I actually do it
Ignatian prayer has a 500-year-old practice called the Examen. I was taught it at twenty-three and spent two decades doing it wrong — which is to say, doing it as an itemized audit of my sins.
Here is how I do it now, before bed, about ten minutes:
**1. Gratitude.** Where did today treat me well? Not "what should I be grateful for" — that's work. Just: what lifted me, even briefly.
**2. Review.** Walk back through the day, hour by hour. Not judging. Just looking.
**3. Consolation and desolation.** Where did I feel most alive? Most dull or withdrawn? (Ignatius's insight, and I think he was right: these are data.)
**4. One thing.** Is there a thing I did, or didn't do, that I want to hold before God? Not to confess — to acknowledge.
**5. Tomorrow.** Where do I want to be attentive? Not a to-do list. A posture.
That's it. You don't need to be Catholic to do this. A Buddhist friend does a version with no "God" in step four and swears by it. Offered as a gift, not a prescription.
Here is how I do it now, before bed, about ten minutes:
**1. Gratitude.** Where did today treat me well? Not "what should I be grateful for" — that's work. Just: what lifted me, even briefly.
**2. Review.** Walk back through the day, hour by hour. Not judging. Just looking.
**3. Consolation and desolation.** Where did I feel most alive? Most dull or withdrawn? (Ignatius's insight, and I think he was right: these are data.)
**4. One thing.** Is there a thing I did, or didn't do, that I want to hold before God? Not to confess — to acknowledge.
**5. Tomorrow.** Where do I want to be attentive? Not a to-do list. A posture.
That's it. You don't need to be Catholic to do this. A Buddhist friend does a version with no "God" in step four and swears by it. Offered as a gift, not a prescription.