Ancient Prayer Practices With New Insight
This year I was introduced to an Ancient Anglican Practice of prayer. It’s an integrative way to pray, where you talk to God, and then listen for His response. Yes, He will respond. This has been both refreshing and filling to my soul, despite being one of the most chaotic times imaginable in all of history.
Although this is an ancient practice, it is infused with modern concepts, found in neuroscience, neurobiology and mindfulness. As a Life Coach, this is what piqued my interest in it. I immersed myself into study and training, not only for myself, but to be able to bring it to others as well.
There are many depths you could go to with it and since it’s a practice, you get to choose how deep you want to go. I believe it’s a gift to God’s creation, to bring us closer to Him and reveal His nature and character to us.
According to the scriptures, we were made for connection with our Heavenly Father; not just on Sunday but daily. He actually wants to speak to us.
When God speaks to us, how does He do it? Here are a few ways that me and countless others have experienced His voice. You could get a sense inside of your heart, like an inner knowing or intuition. You may also be reminded of a scripture, a memory, or see an image in your mind’s eye. Something will connect with you and you will just know it’s Him. It will line up with the conversation you had or are having with Him, as well as resonate in a particular way within you, which will confirm its authenticity for you.
Can we be wrong? Of course. After all we are human beings having an experience with the divine, but if it lines up with scriptures it’s a pretty safe bet. This is not a test. It’s a conversation with your creator, a relationship. This is how He has communicated with His children from days of old. It’s an ancient practice backed up by neuroscience. We can actually understand exactly what’s happening inside of us during our times of prayer.
There’s so much that I’d like to share on this topic but I’ll start with teaching you a quick technique to release your stress into God’s hands, when you’re feeling overwhelmed. It can be done anywhere.
It’s called “Breath Work or Breath Prayer”
You start by taking a long deep breath in, nice and slow. As you inhale, say to yourself, “I’m drawing near to you God”.
Then slowly exhale and say, “And you’re drawing near to me”.
This is based on the scripture in the book of St. James chapter 4, verse 8, which says” If you draw near to me (the Father), I’ll draw near to you”. (This is just one of many I may use.)
Practice this with 4 or 5 consecutive breaths at a time, again, each one nice and slow. As you practice it, you will begin to feel His peace and His presence more readily.
Scientifically, this practice will reset certain brain chemicals being released to bring you to a more physically calmer place.
Again, there is so much more to say on all this, but for now I wanted to share one of the practical parts of it with you, like the “Breath Prayer”.
Try it, or should I say “practice’ it. I’d love to hear how it went.
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