A Guided Ignatian Examen Practice

The Ignatian Examen is the one practice Ignatius wouldn't give up.  I thought it might be helpful to provide you with a guided Examen for your use as you begin the practice.  The podcast will move into other tools, practices and insights from Ignatian spirituality for leaders, but I hope you will continue to practice the 15 minute Examen each day.  

Transcript

Settle In And Begin Attending

Speaker 0:01

Welcome to this guided Ignatian Examen . This is a daily practice of noticing what is happening inside you and where God is present in the texture of an ordinary day. It's not a performance review, it's an encounter. Find a quiet place where you won't be interrupted. Sit comfortably. Close your eyes and take a few slow, deep breaths. Let the activity of the day begin to settle. You've been doing all day. Solving, deciding, responding. For the next 15 minutes, you're going to do something different. You're going to attend. You're not here to evaluate your performance. You're here to see what's actually there.

Step One--Gratitude

Speaker 0:53

Step one, gratitude. Before you review anything, begin with gratitude. Your natural tendency, especially as a leader, is to focus first on difficulty. Gratitude pushes back against that negativity bias. It's an act of honesty that recognizes everything your life, your relationships, your opportunities as a gift. Even if you are not directing this gratitude anywhere in particular, the simple act of noticing what was given today creates a powerful interior shift. Your natural tendency will be to move quickly past this step, but resist that. Slow down here. Ask yourself, what am I grateful for today? Not in general, but specifically, concretely. Conversation that went better than you expected. Someone who showed up for you. A moment of unexpected clarity. Let those things come to the surface and stay with them for a moment before moving on.

Step Two--Petition

Speaker 2:33

Step two, petition. Before you look at your day honestly, pause and ask for help seeing it clearly. Your ego has a preferred version of today. One in which you come off reasonably well, in which your choices made sense, in which the difficult moments were mostly someone else's doing. That version is waiting for you. The step you're about to take, though, requires setting it aside. So before you begin the review, make one simple interior move. Choose openness over your ego's preferred account. Ask for honesty and courage to see what's really there.

Step Three--Review

Speaker 3:24

Step three, the review. Now, walk back through your day. But here's the key. You're not reviewing events, you're reviewing deep feelings and interior movements of consolation and desolation. Where did you feel alive, energized, present, engaged with the people and the work in front of you? And where did you feel drained, anxious, resentful, flat, or diminished? Let the day replay slowly and pay attention to those interior movements. Don't analyze yet. Just notice. As we move through the day, follow a sequence. Begin with your thoughts, the things that preoccupied you, the impulses that arose, the attitude you carried in the rooms before you said a word. Then look at your words, what you actually said, and what those words are carried with them. And your actions, the decisions you made, the things you did and didn't do. The interior movements come first, and your words and actions follow from them. That sequence matters. Pay attention to the moments that linger, the conversations you can't quite shake, the hour that lit you up, the decision that left a residue. Stay there briefly. What is that feeling telling you? These feelings are not noise, they're data. They're telling you something real about what happened inside of you today, and that information is worth having.

Step Four--Reflection

Speaker 9:11

Not harshly. That kind of self-punishment shuts reflection down rather than deepening it. But honestly, follow the same sequence. Where did your thoughts move toward fear, ego, greed, conflict avoidance? Or did your words fall short of what honesty or care required? Where did your actions or your inactions miss the mark? Where did fear, ego, greed, envy, anger drive a decision? Name it. Sit with it for a moment. Not to explain it away, but to own it. Then let it go. The goal here isn't to carry today's shortfalls into tomorrow. It's to see them clearly. Learn what they have to teach you. Express sorrow or regret. And if you pray, ask for forgiveness. Then release them.

Step Five--Look Ahead to Tomorrow

Speaker 12:10

Step five, look ahead. Now turn toward tomorrow. What's coming? The conversations, the decisions, the people, the challenges. Where might you encounter the same patterns you noticed today? Where is there an opportunity to lead better tomorrow than you did today? Bring today's awareness into tomorrow's intentions. Let what you've just seen inform how you want to show up, in your thoughts first, then in your words, then in your actions. This isn't superficial optimism. It's intention, grounded in honest self-knowledge. Close today consciously. Really close it, and open tomorrow with direction.

Why This Practice Matters For Leaders

Speaker 14:18

Paying careful attention to your own interior life is one of the most demanding things a leader can practice and one of the most consequential. Do this again tomorrow and the day after that. Thank you for allowing me to guide you in this examine practice. The one practice Ignatius wouldn't give up.