Coaching practices for Five Movements Examen

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Five Movements Examen, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

  • I want a short set routine I can actually learn and repeat every day, not a grab-bag of poses
  • The quick fifteen-minute run-throughs barely scratch the surface for me
  • I’ll relax my shoulders and then realize my jaw and my stomach were clenched the whole time too
  • I keep starting this nightly prayer practice and then dropping it the second life gets busy, because I’ve made it this long involved thing
  • I’ve been stewing in the same stressful loop at my desk all morning and I’m stiff and stuck in my head

Practices that may help

  1. The Ignatian Examen: Five Movements of Daily Review
    The Ignatian Examen is a five-step daily prayer and reflection practice developed by St. Ignatius of Loyola: give thanks, ask for clarity, review the day, face what fell short, and resolve what comes next. As a structured reflection method it is centuries-old and widely practiced; its benefits are supported by the broader research on gratitude, emotional review, and implementation intentions, not by trials of the Examen itself.
  2. Eight Brocades (Baduanjin)
    The most studied qigong sequence: eight structured movements combining gentle stretching, balance, and slow breathing.
    Qigong: Evidence-Based Mind-Body Practice
  3. The Daily Examen: Reviewing the Day
    The Examen is a short, structured evening review from the Ignatian tradition: you replay the day with gratitude and honest attention to where you felt drawn toward or away from your values, then carry one resolve into tomorrow. It is a centuries-old contemplative practice; its benefits are best described as mechanistically plausible and widely reported rather than established by controlled trials.
  4. Slow, systematic full-body progressive sequence
    Work through every major muscle group from feet to face in a single slow session — more thorough than abbreviated PMR.
    Edmund Jacobson’s Progressive Relaxation, Made Practical
  5. Work a systematic head-to-toe sequence
    Move through muscle groups in a fixed order so no area of held tension gets skipped.
    Progressive Muscle Relaxation, Made Practical
  6. Practice the Examen daily and briefly
    Do a short Examen most days rather than a long one occasionally.
    The Ignatian Examen: Five Movements of Daily Review
  7. Sun salutation micro-practice
    Five minutes of linked sun salutations combines breath, movement, and warmth to break a stress cycle quickly.
    Yoga for Stress: What the Research Shows
  8. Review the day following your feelings
    Walk back through the day in sequence, tracking the emotional quality of each moment.
    The Ignatian Examen: Five Movements of Daily Review
  9. Apply EFT to specific performance anxiety triggers
    EFT has the strongest self-guided evidence for test anxiety, public speaking, and sports performance stress.
    EFT Tapping: What It Is, How to Do It, and What the Evidence Shows
  10. Become aware of God’s presence and give thanks
    Open the review by pausing, settling, and naming specific gifts from the day.
    The Ignatian Examen: Five Movements of Daily Review

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