Ask God to help you identify the moment today for which you are most grateful. Recall that moment in as much detail as possible.What made it so special? "For what moment today am I most grateful?"
Ask God to help you identify the moment today for which you are least grateful. Recall that moment. What made it so difficult? "For what moment today am I least grateful?"
Follow this with "When did I feel most alive today? When did I most feel life draining out of me today?"
Try to keep the Daily Examen as consistently as possible. At regular intervals look back over your journal entries.
What do you notice? Any patterns? Themes?
What might these writings be telling you about how God is speaking to you?
What do these writings suggest about your identity? Your purpose? Your direction?
The Daily Examen is an approach to grow in self-understanding and in openness to Gods love and God's self-direction for your life. Specifically, the Examen helps us get in touch with our feelings and reactions to daily experience and identify what gives us joy and what brings us sorrow. Experiences that seem small and insignificant at the time take on greater meaning when we recognize they are part of a larger pattern.
An online example of this approach simplified by a woman who used it as a family event each evening. Angela York Crane describes herself as a woman who is a finder and holder of stories. living on both ends - an exploration of best and worst
"The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates
Renovare has an excellent set of Questions of the Heart that go a bit further and address specific areas of life.
Comments
I am least grateful for the knot in my stomach all morning from worry. I woke troubled and anxious about a situation that's brewing. I felt the premonition of physical illness if I didn't resolve this issue. What made it so difficult was my inability to please everyone involved...I was afraid to disappoint.