The Power of Prayer
What is prayer?
It’s a simple question but for a long time, it was one I didn’t want to ask as it seemed like it would be too obvious! When I heard the word “prayer”, my mind would instantly go to The Lord’s Prayer, which I didn’t fully understand as a child. I didn’t go to church growing up and spirituality wasn’t really a conversation in our household, so it was never something I explored or thought about. As a teenager and young adult, I always made the assumption that it was just “people asking God for stuff.” It’s only since starting to get in touch with my own connection with Spirit that I gave the idea much thought.
A prayer is a connection between you and God. It’s important to note here that I’m using the name of “God”, however if “God” doesn’t feel right for you, we often use names such as “Source”, “Creator”, “Father”, “Universe”…the list is endless! A prayer is an expression from the Soul. It’s a beautiful space where we are intentionally directing our thoughts, our energy and our words to the Universe. A true prayer has heart-felt emotion behind it, not just a bunch of words we feel we should say. A prayer spoken either out loud or internally has the power to bring hope and healing, and opens our hearts and minds to the limitless possibilities of the Universe.
How do we pray?
As I mentioned above, we find a name that we feel comfortable using when referring to Source. We quieten the mind, and we simply speak from our hearts. I actually quite like writing a prayer in my journal every now and again, especially if my mind feels exceptionally busy and is jumping about all over the place, it helps me to find focus, write the words down and I read back over them afterwards. I was always scared of doing it wrong, thinking I had to use a particular style of language or words, like The Lord’s Prayer. Yes, words have weight, and the language we use has an impact on us, but we can still comfortably from our Souls without feeling we have to use flowery sentences, or shoehorn our emotions into old-fashioned style words. If you’re praying from the heart, you’re doing it right, and it will be heard! And if you’re not sure what words to put to what you wish to express, sitting holding that thought or feeling and offering it to the Universe is enough.
When is a good time to pray?
Any time is a good time to pray! When you wake up, or sitting with your morning coffee, or travelling on the bus, or walking the dog…it all works! There’s no maximum, or minimum that you can pray. Monks and Nuns dedicate most of their day to prayer. Many people just say a simple prayer before bedtime. One of my favourite times to pray is before meditation or yoga - it helps me move my mind from those busy, day-to-day thoughts to a different state of mind, a more relaxed mindful place of heightened awareness.
Thoughts
In conclusion, a regular prayer practice is good for the Soul. We often get frustrated when it feels like our prayers are not being answered. There’s a lot going around about manifesting, I’m not knocking it, but it sometimes sounds like using the Universe like a vending machine! Practicing prayer brings about a different state of mind. I mentioned in another blog entry “The Language of The Universe” about awareness, noticing signs and such like. Little things like this are how the Universe shows that they hear your prayers. And I say “prayer practice” because it is a practice in a way! If you’re like me and didn’t grow up with a whole lot of Spiritual guidance, prayer might not feel natural at first. Which is fine. Entering a mindful space every day and seeing where your thoughts go is a great starting point. We allow our Soul to begin to bubble, and we see what comes to the surface, and we send those bubbles out in the form of prayer!
