Examen Cards + Tools
Modern approaches to an old practice
centered on spiritual friendship and self-discovery.
It might feel like a part of you is missing or that something beautiful + bigger is just out of reach.
Listen to that feeling, it is your heart and Love calling you to journey within.
Does this ring true?
✔ You know there’s more to you + to life than what’s on the surface.
✔ You long to reconnect to your soul and Spirit, but don’t know how or if it’s safe to do alone.
✔ You know a spiritual journey needn’t be harsh, lonely, and judgmental even if it’s the only example you’ve had.
✔ You’re not sure “being better + trying harder” really leads to becoming happy or living a life with purpose, but you’re not sure what does.
Imagine a safe, accepting, and compassionate place where you can truly surrender, be 100% yourself, and release fear—a place where you receive sincerity, care, and hope in response.
Now imagine this is always + already within you.
Love invites you into this place everyday.
The examen helps you grow a loving relationship to yourself + to Love which looks like this:
✔ You know you are loved and accepted just as you are even as you are growing, releasing fears, and taking responsibility.
✔ You listen to your passions, doubts, and questions because they help you know + trust yourself and Love.
✔ You live in deep integrity with your values, being accountable to your conscience, identity, and growth rather than trying to win or please all of the time.
✔ You see Love in all beings and things, including yourself, trusting Love as a force of inclusion, goodness, compassion and guiding discernment.
Want to learn the examen and start on your own spiritual journey? Here’s a great tool to start!
Examen Cards
illustrated, compassionate, + relatable to your life
More tools that support your unique spiritual experience + friendship:
Step-by-Step Examen Cards
How do you connect to your heart and Love everyday? The examen practice is my go-to! These cards guide you through the practice step-by-step, making it more clear, relatable, and compassionate.
Compassionate Question Cards
In the examen, we notice where we felt Love’s presence and where we didn’t. These question cards help you notice sacred connection + disconnection in your everyday life.
Prints, Zines, Maps, and More
Beautiful reminders that you are loved just as you are and that Love is present in your everyday experience inviting you into your whole, unique self!
What People
Are Saying:
“I have been following Jen’s work for several years and always find joy, nourishment, and practical wisdom in her art and words. Jen’s examen tools transcend religious ideology and foster gentle integrations + messy wholeness. I look forward to each offering Jen puts her hands and heart to.”
— Krista Barmer, poet, spiritual writer, and artist, The Mending Space and author of The Keeper: Poems + Textiles
“The [examen] cards are helping spark deeper reflection of my day so I can be aware of where my heart is.”
— Heather C., California
Before I started practicing the examen:
I felt like there was something I was meant to do, but I could never figure out what.
I was suspicious of my dreams and desires and afraid of my heartbreak and struggles.
I was sure a spiritual path meant strictly following traditional doctrines even if I didn’t believe them or relate to them.
I believed I needed to be constantly be improving myself as if I could “get perfect” and then I could find joy, meaning, and purpose.
After I started practicing the examen:
I became open to infinite possibilities for my life, trusting that Love + I would decide on them together.
I learned Love is present and speaks to me in my human experiences, particularly in powerful moments of hope and challenge.
I saw that there are many paths to the sacred, finding God in my faith as well as outside it.
I accepted that growth and transformation are a part of life, and that doesn’t mean being perfect before one starts living.
Want a sneak peek?
Two new examen resources are on their way—a book + a workshop!
Details and an invitation to be on the waitlists are below :D
The Book
Scroll through to see a few pages!
The Workshop
Examen 101
Examen 101: Deepening Your Practice + Sacred Friendship is in development. Here’s a taste.
1. Practices that are Modern, Flexible, Personal, and Playful
We’ll begin our journey with a look at the examen’s history + tradition and dive into why it’s so relevant for our lives today. Embracing our contexts and curiosity, we’ll learn and try out different ways of practicing the examen. This will help us name the methods of practice that work best for us and our daily lives and take some of the intimidation out of concepts like contemplation, reflection, and spiritual practice.
2. Befriending Ourselves + Love in our Everyday
We’ll notice the patterns we’re seeing in our lives, paying close attention to where we feel connected + disconnected to our hearts and to Love. We’ll notice our inner voices and begin to differentiate their tones and frequency so that we can discern the qualities of our voice, those of the outside world, and those of Love.
3. What’s Blooming + What’s on the Horizon
We’ll look at what discernment means—how one makes a decision based on their whole self, daily experiences, and the Sacred. Based on our examen practice, we’ll notice what areas of our life are abundant with possibility and what areas need extra care and tending. We’ll listen to Love’s invitations in these places and set intentions around them so that we are taking our next steps consciously + compassionately.
I look forward to journeying with you!
Hear What People Are Saying!
“Jen’s art continues to inspire me. I’m grateful for the cards that make the examen more accessible, and bring beauty, delight, and wonder to the spiritual practice.”
— Kay H., Missouri
“Jennifer brings so much love and tender care to everything she creates. Receiving these goodies [examen + compassionate question cards] has me happy from head to toe. USING these goodies keeps me in touch with me on a daily basis. Jennifer reaches the heart of me like few can. I can’t recommend her or her labors of love highly enough!”
— Jenny G., Virginia
“Jen’s talent and intentions spread Divine Love. Everything she puts her hands and heart to will bring you Home to a new depth of insight, compassion, and tender mercies toward yourself and the people around you. The Examen cards are delightfully well made, inviting, and creative. If St. Ignatius was right, and I believe he was, that God is in all things, you will find God in any of Jen’s joyfully designed products.”
— Lynn P., Georgia
Examen FAQs
1. What if I’m not religious and I don’t want to be religious?
You do not need to be religious to practice the examen nor will you become religious by practicing it (unless you feel led by your own inner wisdom to choose that path). The examen’s roots are in religious tradition, but it operates outside of that. It is not intended to convert you to anything except your own beloved self-trust and a relationship to Love, however you name and experience that.
2. Do I have to be good at meditating or emptying my mind to practice the examen?
The examen is similar to meditation insofar as we observe our thoughts and feelings without judgment, but they are also different. The examen is more like a conversation where we talk to and listen to our heart and to Love about our day.
3. Basically, how do you do the examen?
In short: we practice gratitude, reflect on the day, pay attention to what’s uplifting and weighing on us, listen to how Spirit is reaching out to us, tend to loose ends and missteps, and set an intention to align our next steps with our conscience. We engage in this rhythm daily. Each time, growing in trust and learning more about ourselves and Love in the process.
4. How long does it take to do the examen?
Traditionally, it takes 15-20 minutes everyday at lunchtime or before bed. Some days, it’s a 5 minute process for me. Some days, it’s longer. You can practice in your own mind and heart, by writing in a journal or talking with a friend. It’s a very flexible practice designed to meet you as you are and as your day unfolds for you.