Tired during nighttime reflection

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AHelpingHand

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Hello. For some odd reason, when I begin to recount my day at night and prepare myself for an act of perfect contrition (which is in need of prayers because it isn’t perfect contrition quite yet. I’m new to nighttime reflections and acts of perfect contrition, so this is expected), I feel an immense tiredness and almost laziness overcome my body and mind. My reflections take too long, as I try to make my examination of conscious around 3-5 minutes but end up with basically nothing done. I aim for my entire reflection to last 15 minutes, but wow those 15 minutes are waisted by the time of the act of contrition. And especially during this COVID time, the acts of perfect contrition are needed (though they always are), but this tiredness is challenging.

Thank you for reading this, and I simply ask for your prayers and advice 🙂. (P.S. I do not have a mental disorder such as narcolepsy. Just throwing that out there).
 
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Do it at another time of day. It would be okay for example to do it first thing in the morning but reflect on the previous day.

I too cannot do any sort of examen or reflective prayer at night. By the time I am ready for sleep, my brain is shutting down. I do not particularly like the examen-type prayer anyway, so it’s a double whammy of being tired and having to do a prayer form that’s not my favorite thing. First thing in the morning or at noon works much better for that sort of thing for me, when I do it. If done at noon I can reflect on noon yesterday till noon today. Or I can just plan to do the prayer like once or twice a week and think about the whole week. You can experiment and find what works for you.
 
I’ve given up on any type of night prayer routine. If I am compelled to pray at night I will do it but it’s not a daily thing. I’m much better with prayer in the morning. For what its worth, I attempted to do a daily examen and wasn’t into it. I do think it is valuable but find a weekly examen works better for me. YMMV. I find if I try to force a devotion ether it isn’t for me and I let it go or I need to switch up the approach or frequency.
 
You may want to consider journaling as a method to help you focus your thoughts. You don’t have to keep the journal pages when you’re finished; they can be destroyed.
 
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