Discernment — Reading Consolation and Desolationignatian discernmentYou notice the movements of a day and sort them into two kinds: consolation, which opens and enlarges and moves you outward, and desolation, which closes, agitates and turns you in on yourself. Then one firm rule governs decisions — in desolation, change nothing. Hold to what you decided in a clearer state and wait. It comes from Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises (sixteenth century), whose Rules for Discernment set out both the sorting and the rule against deciding in the dark.What it's for

Decision Fatigue — The inability to choose is read here as trying to decide from inside desolation — a state this tradition says distorts every option equally. The instruction is not a better method for choosing; it is to postpone choosing until the weather changes.

Identity Crisis — Not knowing who you are is read as having lost the ability to tell which pulls are yours. The remedy is to stop assessing yourself and start tracking direction — what opens you out, what closes you in.