In times of calm or crisis, prayer helps us focus our psychic energy. Prayer is a solemn request or expression of thanks to a deity or other object of worship (Google Dictionary). This article explores prayer as a psychological tool for mental, emotional, and spiritual health.
How to pray
Because prayer is a solemn request or expression of thanks, we should practice this practice with respectful and responsible intention. While you can pray that the best athlete on your team will prevail over the other team’s athletes, the prayer I want to discuss is about using concentrated psychic energy to perform ritual healing for your mind, body and soul .
When you are worried, anxious or depressed, it not only impacts your mind and spirit, but also your body. Frustration, worry, anxiety, and persistent sadness all produce chemicals in the human body that are different from the chemicals for love, happiness, joy, and calmness. Once these negative chemicals start to produce, they can easily build and build until your physical system becomes overwhelmed along with your mental and spiritual systems.
Prayer is a way to break the feedback loop of negative thinking and maintain positive energy throughout your day and life. Therefore, prayer is much more than just thinking of the prayer or saying it out loud. How you prepare and say your prayer is just as important as what you pray for.
Best practices
My father was a homebuilder most of his life, and I worked for him as a teenager and young adult. He passed on the adage to me: “Measure twice, cut once”. He firmly believed, across many things, that there was a best practice and a professional way to do work. There was also poor practice and sloppy working methods.
One of the best methods of prayer is to achieve a relaxed state of body and mind. The reason you pray may be fear, but prayer will help you most if you can do so from a place of calm at the time you say the prayer. Physically, this means calm breathing, awareness of your posture and, where possible, a sacred space in your home or outside.
To breathe
The power of breath is enormous. When we become anxious enough to hyperventilate, our breathing is out of control. To prepare and say a prayer, silently or out loud, slow your breathing by taking controlled breaths for 30 seconds to a minute. An easy way to regulate your breathing is to inhale deeply for a few seconds and then release it for the same number of seconds. If you can take deep breaths by counting to three or four for the recommended length of time, you will notice a significant increase in your focus.
Body position
Kneeling or sitting cross-legged (the lotus position in yoga) are two of the most common ways to put the body into “prayer mode.” It is also common to place your hands in front of you.
Source: Wikipedia
Source: Wikipedia
Source: Wikipedia
Whenever I can, I prefer to stand outside and look at the sun, lifting my face to the sun and turning the palms outward. It is also customary to close your eyes during prayer, but this is not necessary.
Formulate your prayer in words
Prayers can be specific or general. A general prayer is a prayer you use when you don’t have a specific topic to address. It is a good practice to have a regular “thankful” prayer and a “guide me” prayer that puts you out into the universe. Just as your body needs regular exercise, your mind benefits from regular prayer.
Specific prayers focus on specific situations in our lives where these situations burden us. And while we may pray for a certain outcome, it is important to remember that the outcome, whatever it turns out to be, is only one piece of a larger puzzle of the spiritual lessons behind and surrounding the situation. You can pray for money if you are worried about bills, or you can pray for wisdom to solve your money worries. The second prayer will offer you more because it addresses your immediate concerns and future concerns.
The best practice is to have a ritual practice
Regardless of how you choose to “hold your body” for your prayer – kneeling, sitting or standing – and how you say the prayer, it is essential that you follow a ritual pattern, because the act of the ritual is key. is to concentrate the prayer energy. . Prayer energy is comprehensive, meaning you send it out into the world and use it to anchor yourself in this reality.
Simplicity or complexity in your prayer ritual is a matter of choice, but having a ritual pattern is necessary if you want to reap the best internal and external benefits. A healthy prayer regimen can ward off negative energy in your life and maintain positive energy.
Praying to…
There are many gods and spirits to pray to. Depending on your upbringing, life circumstances, and personal choices, you may have already found or been led to one or more different ones. Properly addressing certain deities is another ritualistic way to focus the energy of prayer so that you can receive the energy you need from prayer and give the energy you want to bring into life.
Prayer is and should be a holy, purposeful act, performed with reverence and discipline. The more seriously you approach the prayer process, regardless of how you build or learn it, the greater the benefits. The healing and calming power of prayer can be truly amazing if you embrace the work it takes to get the most out of this ancient spiritual tool.
