What do you look like & sound like when you pray?

[Lady Valkyrie]

"Without prayer, I should have been a lunatic long
ago."
--Mahatma Gandhi

How can we make our prayers more satisfying and fulfilling? One of the best ways is to see and hear ourselves as we pray, as if we were getting a bird's-eye view of what we look like and how we sound when we pray.

Seeing from above in this objective way gives a good overview of the strength and the meaning of our prayers. Are we whining and fidgeting as we pray? Maybe we aren't really praying but instead are asking to get our way. Do we sound angry, with fists clenched? Maybe we need to work on letting go first before we pray.

This is how our Higher Power sees and hears us. Our Higher Power knows which prayers are serious, meaningful conversations and which are filled with self-pity, resentment, and anger. Tonight we can hear ourselves pray and learn whether we are truly praying or merely taking time for self-centered feelings.

Before I pray tonight, let me run through the things I want to say. Help me keep self-centered feelings at a minimum and true sharing and communication at a maximum.

from the book
Night Light by Amy E. Dean

[Altair]

Interesting.


I find that my prayer is a process of focusing on what matters, weeding through conflicting matters (sorting them out and weighing them in), coming to understanding, and seeing pathways as well as where I am. Praying is a grounding; it's a coming-to-grips with your true self, a time to be honest, even a time to validate one's self and actions as seen in a greater scope of things. Praying is for the mind's eye, where visions of understanding take place. Praying is a heavy and deep practice that's really more than words can describe.

[Dogstar]

Praying for me is almost like meditation. I almost always do it at the end of the day, when I feel the most need for balance in my mind. My duties for the day are done and I can concentrate on whatever issues I need to sort out in a calm, reflective, rational, unhurried manner. It centers me.

[souldancer]

I don't know what I look or sound like when I pray, but this is the way I enter my sacred time of prayer... With intentions to commune with the Divine. To humbly bring my true and full self present in the moment to be open to connect, to receive and to give back in gratitude.