The best way to end your day.
One Minute For Your Health #9
“For it is not knowing much, but realising and relishing things interiorly, that contents and satisfies the soul.”
― Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises
For more than 500 years Christians have been practicing something known as the examen.
In today’s post I want to tell you why it may be beneficial for everyone to end their day with some form of this spiritual exercise.
What is the examen?
The examen essentially consists of 5 steps.
For Christians the intention is to recognise the presence of God in unexpected places throughout their day.
If you don’t believe in God then you can focus on the other aspects of this practice.
The intention is to become aware of moments of beauty within your day, to practice gratitude and to reflect on things that you would like to differently tomorrow.
Become still, notice God’s presence, notice your emotions, thoughts and physical sensations.
Reflect on your day with gratitude, remember back over each moment of your day and notice the moments that were beautiful, surprising, full of connection, joy, love or achievement.
Reflect on your day with self-awareness, notice moments of your day where you had negative emotions, where you didn’t act as you would have liked to. Hand this over to God or reflect on what you would like to do differently tomorrow.
Reflect on one part of your day intentionally, choose one part of the day, that you are especially grateful for or that is niggling you in a negative way. Talk to God about it, or reflect on it for yourself.
Look forward to tomorrow, hand over your worries to God or practice letting them go (read about this in my article on worry). As it says in Matthew 6:34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
If you would like to do a guided examen I highly recommend this video, in which Caroline Williams combines a relaxing evening stretch routine with the examen. It’s truly beautiful.
Doing this daily can increase your sense of gratitude, meaning and connection in life.
My challenge for you:
This week for your #1M4YH challenge I encourage you to practice some form of the examen a few times this week.
For you that might look like spending 1 or 2 minutes in bed reflecting on your day before you go to sleep.
You might try the video I linked above.
Others of you might prefer to journal, to go through each of the 5 stages and write down your thoughts and reflections in a notebook.
It might look like something totally different for you.
The key is to spend a few minutes reflecting on your day and looking forward to tomorrow.
I would love it if we could all inspire each other, share your practice and tag us at #1M4YH, remember to tag me @efias_kitchen on instagram and @insideefiaskitchen on Facebook so I don’t miss a thing.
Comment on this post to let me know your favourite way to end the day.
Why not do this challenge with a friend? Share this email with someone who might like it and encourage each other to be consistent with the practice.
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Links and References:
https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-examen/
https://aleteia.org/2020/02/09/7-of-the-best-quotes-from-st-ignatius-of-loyola/
Kleiman, E. et al. (2013) "Gratitude and grit indirectly reduce risk of suicidal ideations by enhancing meaning in life: Evidence for a mediated moderation model", Journal of Research in Personality, 47(5), pp. 539-546. doi: 10.1016/j.jrp.2013.04.007.
https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-spiritual-exercises/
Images from www.canva.com
Learn more about Marie at www.efiaskitchen.com