Written By: Kathleen Dunn,

Since the New Year began, I have been deliberately trying to get to bed at a decent hour. As I’ve mentioned many times before, I have a notorious habit of leaving everything until the last minute to be completed, therefore forcing myself to stay up late to get things done. As such, going to bed by midnight has required me to make a drastic effort to use my time wisely during the day. In addition to getting more sleep, I am slowly learning to become more disciplined and focused during the day.

Getting used to this sleep schedule, however, has made me very thankful for the gift of going to bed at night – which is inevitably followed by a new day. Can you imagine if we were created to be awake at all hours of the day and night, not requiring any sleep? Although I’ve wished for this to be true at some busy times in my life, I’ve taken for granted the significance of going to bed at night. Every 24 hours, we are given an opportunity put our tasks aside and rest before the new day. Without this natural break between our days, when would we take time to reflect on these increments of our life we call days? The moment we decide to “turn in the towel” for the day is an incredible opportunity “let go, and let God.” Are we taking advantage of this? Are we taking time to seriously review our actions from the day in order to make improvements for tomorrow?

A priest-friend of mine recently recommended a spiritual exercise to help me make the most of these nightly reflections: The Examen of Consciousness by St. Ignatius . This exercise is an extremely beneficial tool to increase our awareness of our daily actions and to appreciate the blessings God has given us each day.

Let us use each new day to bring us closer to God than the last!

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Suggested Reading:

The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius

Walking Together: Discovering the Catholic Tradition of Spiritual Friendship