Devotion: Your Personal Prayer

This is a Devotional Daily Practice. Prayer can be a powerful vehicle for bridging active living into receptive consciousness. It can be used to prepare for meditation or as a standalone contemplative experience. This selection includes a method for creating a personal prayer, and concludes with a guided prayer experience. Pen and paper are recommended.

Transcript

Welcome to the Journey Inward.

Today I'm going to discuss with you the power of a morning meditation practice,

And specifically the power of starting your day or your meditation practice with a personal prayer that you develop or borrow.

I'd like to ask you at this time to perhaps pause this recording,

Get a notebook or a piece of paper and a pen,

As well as your comfortable seated position ready to meditate.

We can transition towards the end of the recording into a meditation.

So I'd like you to have those items ready so you can work along with me and perhaps journal towards the end of this meditation.

Anything that comes up for you that you would like to guide your own personal practice.

We want to notice the practices that are really working for us.

The day,

The time that's working for us.

And we're making short notes in a journal as we begin this journey inward through our meditation experiences.

Noticing our day to day mindset,

How our practice affects us and what practices we want to repeat and return to.

One of those practices that I would like to really encourage you with is to practice meditation in the morning.

First thing is you start the day.

I discourage you from doing this in your bed,

Although this is your practice.

You could try that.

Get out of bed,

Make a few transitional moments.

Maybe you're breathing,

Finding a comfortable seat.

And before you enter into any kind of engagement with others,

We want to take one or two moments for prayer and then maybe another additional five,

10,

15 minutes for meditation.

There's a certain power in the morning.

We're a fresh slate from the night before we've slept,

Whether good or bad.

We have this power to start our day from a clear perspective.

We're a clear slate.

We've erased everything before we arrive at our seat for meditation.

And we allow our morning practice to open us to the guidance of the coming day.

And by starting a practice in the morning,

You can really sense how your practice guides the way that you respond each day.

The meditation opens our thought systems.

Perhaps we notice we're becoming less reactive to those around us.

And when we begin our day as the witness and the observer in our personal practice,

Maybe we enter the day in a state of mindfulness where we can witness the events and the happenings around us with less reactive state of mind,

More calm,

Clear awareness.

Perhaps this might even affect your focus.

So take even one to two minutes in the morning for a short prayer and a meditation before breakfast,

Before Facebook,

Interacting with people or the news.

I hope that that morning time of still,

Reflective,

Quiet presence for you might significantly shift the way you experience and respond to life that day.

Now I'm going to talk to you about why use a prayer.

Using a prayer is part of a ritual to begin meditation can allow us to become receptive to our inner guidance each day.

A prayer can help us feel grounded in our own truth.

I encourage you to consider creating a three or more lined personal prayer.

You want to keep it simple,

Something that you can remember.

If creating a personal prayer is overwhelming to you,

I'm going to basically feed you some great words during this lesson.

You could write some of those down.

You could even go online,

And there's a number of spiritual resources out there that you could look to and draw prayer.

The key is that we want to use the same prayer repetitively so that our mind starts to learn through repetition of prayer and ritual,

That it's time to transition from whatever happened before that prayer into a receptive inner state.

And then from that prayer into our meditation.

By doing the same prayer ritual,

We can bridge our day into our meditation practice,

Creating maybe a more receptive state.

You may find it easier to access this state and readiness to receive guidance after a prayer,

Or even become a channel of divine love more quickly over time.

Now,

Go ahead and take your pen and paper,

As I address five components that I find effective for creating a personal prayer.

Number one is we want to address a higher power.

If you believe in God,

That's great.

You can,

Dear God,

Maybe that isn't in your comfort zone.

You can open your awareness to God S,

To your angels,

To the inner knowing that resides within you,

To the great spirit,

Or the universe.

These are all wonderful ways to just open yourself up and take yourself into a process of trusting and letting go of your ego consciousness.

Our ego likes to be in charge and judge,

But higher consciousness can act as our guide.

And so we might begin our prayer by inviting in a higher consciousness to guide us.

Next,

Number two is to invite protection.

You can visualize yourself being surrounded by healing light or universal energy,

Or simply call upon your higher power to protect you and keep you safe on this day.

With gratitude and protection.

Guide me.

Number three,

Open yourself to a receptive mindset.

Here we are allowing ourselves to give over the power of our meditation to a higher power than our own needs and wants.

Just send a simple invitation out.

Guide me today.

How can I serve?

Thy will be done.

Or simply,

How can I show up on this day?

How would you have me serve?

Here we present the invitation to influence how we show up.

As you take awareness from your meditation into your life.

Once you've asked for that guidance to be received.

Guide me today.

I like to leave a few moments and just receive.

I transition into my meditation practice of just receiving,

Listening,

Not asking Divine or God for anything,

But asking for what is needed of me on this day.

And then I listen.

Once I've listened,

I find it powerful and this would be number four on your list to include a gratitude practice.

Gratitude transforms your experience of life.

Give it a try.

The more you take time to recognize the gifts in your life through Thanksgiving,

The more you become aware of how blessed you are.

If you're a writer,

You can always include this into a journaling segment of meditative writing.

And we just get in the habit of counting our blessings and developing a sense of abundance and thankfulness in our life.

This is powerful for shifting your experience or your perception of life in general.

And then five.

I like to include a closing.

I seal my intentions with a simple Amen.

Namaste.

Blessed be.

Thank you for your this guidance.

So once you've written down those five steps.

We're ready to transition now into a short,

Guided prayer as a bridge to your meditation.

I'd like to invite you to just open up your flexible mindset and give this a try with me.

Set down your pen and paper.

Find yourself in your seated meditative position.

Your spine tall.

Your mind open and receptive.

Exhale.

Drop in to this space and time.

Feel.

The shift in the weight of gravity drawing you downward and connecting you to the earth beneath.

And inhale.

Turn the palms up today and invite in an openness to receive and listen.

Invite in the openness to pray with me as we begin.

Great spirit.

I trust your guidance today.

I know that I have your protection.

Your wisdom with me always.

I invite the healing energy of the universe to surround me and run through me today.

Protect me as I am on my way.

Great spirit guide me.

Show me how I can serve this day.

Take a few breaths and listen.

How are you being asked to serve on this day?

What is calling to you during this time of your life to show up?

Take this awareness.

Seal it into your heart space.

In that sacred heart space that resides within you.

I'd like you to recognize what you're already doing.

How you are a blessing in this universe.

Just name five things that you have to be grateful for people.

Experiences.

Abundances in your life.

Take this time to recognize gratitude.

I am thankful.

For.

I am blessed for.

I have so much abundance in my life.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And simply bring your hands into a prayer.

Hold one hand over the other and rest them on your heart,

Whatever you're comfortable with.

Bow your head and humbleness.

Know that you are blessed and you are protected and you are loved.

Seal your intentions for this day.

Simply,

Simply say.

Blessed be.

Amen.

Thank you.

Thank you for your presence.

Thank you for listening.

You are magnificent.

You are a piece of the radiant light of the universe.

As within you.

Is the same that's around you and within me and within everyone you meet.

And as you move into this day,

Remember how you want to serve.

Remember how you're being asked to serve.

Count your blessings as you encounter them and allow your light to shine ever brighter.

So that when your eyes meet the eyes of those around you.

People,

Plants,

Animals,

Everything you encounter.

Honor that with the blessing.

Namaste.

I see the light in you.

And I know that that same light,

That same great spirit resides within me.

And on your way today,

May you be blessed.

Namaste.

Reviews

Thank you. Exactly what I needed to hear today

So very helpful. Blessings to Nadine.

A wonderful little workshop for designing a prayer that can become a ritual door into meditation and a way to enter each new day with attention to divine energy. I love how gentle and open the guidance is — I feel supported in finding words that are meaningful to me, without assuming anything about my religious tradition or experience (or my lack of these things either). Thank you!

Thank you! May you know peace and be well!