Meditative Prayer for People Who Can’t Meditate

The article this week is a little different, and may not directly apply to your experience with meditation. If not, feel free to share with someone you think it might help!

Everyone has a busy mind. Super active minds even get a fancy name – ADHD (Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder). This affects an estimated eleven million adults. Research has shown that those with ADHD and others who have especially busy minds can learn to do meditative prayer effectively. In addition, the practice itself can help with the ADHD and racing mind symptoms.

Without actually trying to do meditative prayer upside down, I’ve gathered together here in this article many different strategies, helpful hints, tips, and other methods that are recommended to help people with especially busy minds discover that they too, can meditate.

I encourage you to repeat to yourself a thousand times, or as often as necessary: “Meditation is a practice that is slowly learned. There are no wrong ways to do it. I will not evaluate myself, but instead, enjoy myself while learning.”

USING ACTIVITY TO ANCHOR YOUR ATTENTION

All over the world, on Sunday morning and other times, millions of Pentecostals and Charismatics gather together and reach inner flow states of subtle consciousness that allows God to touch them in life-giving ways. How are they able to sustain an hour or more of altered state flow that ecstatically renews and refreshes them in deep ways? Many of these worshippers would not be able to traditionally mediate for even a few minutes without giving in to an overwhelmingly busy mind. They do it because they have learned how to let the activity of motion, emotion, and devotion anchor their attention on God. This worship style may seem overly emotional to many more reserved folks. But that’s the point. Being emotionally blocked or repressed keeps these potent anchors for meditative prayer from being accessed.

I benefitted from this kind of expressive prayer and worship for years while I was unable to practice other kinds of meditative prayer because of my repressed emotional blocks.

You can find a local charismatic group and try it out! Or we can also break down elements of this highly active worship practice and use them in our personal practice. Research shows that each can be helpful to anchor your attention in practical, meditative ways. Here are some of those elements.

Additionally, ICN is currently developing a Moving with Whole-Body Mystical Awakening course, with an initial workshop on January 9th. If you’re interested, contact Allen Bourque for more information

Hand movement and tapping

Instead of only using hand movement to get to a center of knowing, keep the action going. Keep tapping on your heart or keep your hands there. Keep moving your hands around your tummy. Keep wiggling your toes or moving your feet around.

You may want to use tapping to begin your meditation to calm yourself. Tapping meditation is a form of meditation that involves tapping specific points on the body, focusing on the head and the face, in a sequence. You can learn more about this method, also known as the Emotional Freedom Technique.

Swaying Meditation

If you need bigger movement to anchor your attention, forget sitting — meditate while standing. One of the most powerful ways is to sway while meditating. This is a common movement in Jewish prayer and is natural for many Jews who engage in regular prayer. The Zohar offers a spiritual explanation for swaying: “When a Jew utters one word of Torah, the light [in his soul] is kindled…and he (sic) sways to and fro like the flame of a candle” Rabbi Yehiel Michel Epstein provides another reason. He asserts that many sway during prayer because it improves their spiritual intensity and helps engage the individual in conversation with God. Swaying from side to side or any other form can help keep you in your body and calm you at the same time.

Shaking and tremoring

Letting one’s hands and arms, shoulders, torso, and legs shake can be a powerful clearing of blocks and release of healing flow throughout the body. I find my hands and arms shake often and sometimes my whole body in WBMA, both by myself and in WeSpace groups. I feel like a coiled-up hose when the water faucet is turned on and it shakes and moves around as the water begins to flow through it, straightening out the kinks.

Walking Meditation

If you need more anchoring activity, try meditative prayer while walking. You can walk around your room or house. You can walk in your backyard or in a park. Here is how to practice meditative walking in 6 easy steps

1. Find a lane in your house or outside that allows you to walk back and forth for 10-15 paces.
This is a relatively peaceful place where you won’t be disturbed or even observed (since a slow, formal walking meditation can look strange to people unfamiliar with it). This is a very intentional form of walking where you’re mostly retracing your steps.

2. Ground yourself.
Take a moment before you begin to walk to feel the sensation of your feet on the ground. Keeping your eyes open with a soft focus just in front of you, take a big, deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth. And as you breathe out through the mouth, begin to walk.

3. Walk at a normal pace to begin with that feels natural and comfortable.
If you are feeling stressed, this might be a quick way to start: walking, pausing, turning around, and walking back again. Just get comfortable, bringing the mind into the body and noticing how the body feels as you walk.

4. Notice your walking rhythm
Start to notice the movement of your body, the arms, the legs, the hands, the feet. But, in particular, notice the movement of the legs and the rhythm of the legs moving backward and forward.

5. Mindfully slow your pace.
Gradually start to slow it down a little bit, so each time you set out to walk, slow it down by about 10 percent each time. As you continue to walk more and more slowly, start to notice the sensation of the foot pressing against the floor. Feel one foot pressing down, then the pressure easing off as you lift the foot. Then feel the next foot pushing down, the sensation of it lifting off.

6. Reflectively end your practice
Any time you get distracted, notice it, let it go, and bring the attention back to the feet. Continue for as long as you want, and when you finish, return to a standing position and take a big deep breath.

A mantra

While you may walk with just a focus on your breathing, some prefer to use a mantra, a phrase, word, or sound you can use to help focus your awareness during meditation. You can repeat the mantra with each slow step. You can also create your own mantra that feels reassuring or calming. For example, your mantra might be “I am that I am” (God’s name revealed to Moses) “I am Light.” I am Loved.” “Peace.” Or a hummed sound or sigh. Or a word or sound that fits on your current situation. You may find it helpful to have a different mantra as you move between each center—heart, womb, feet, and head.

Dance and body movement

You can also do free or patterned dance or body movement that express the center of spiritual knowing you are in. Move or dance from the emotions filling your heart in your heart space. In your gut space, use your hands, feet, and body to express what you sense in your spiritual womb. Let your feet move or wiggle, following what you are feeling from earth energy. While in your headspace, let your hands and body express still through calm slow motions. Act out transcendence by raising your hands up to the cosmos or other movements that say being beyond yourself.

If you need even more exertion, try WBMA while exercising or doing hard work. Even if it’s hard or not relaxing, there’s no such thing as a bad meditation.

Meditation Beads

Tibetan Mala beads are a type of prayer beads. Prayer beads have been used for centuries by various religions, from Hinduism to Catholicism. These beads are similar to the Catholic Rosary beads. The monks will chant a word or syllable of a mantra while touching each bead. This simple physical activity helps to focus the mind.

Today, they’re sometimes used as a mindfulness aid without any particular religious affiliation. Here are ways to use this method to focus your busy mind.

· The repetitive movement of your fingers across the beads helps ground you.

· Touching each bead as you say a mantra helps you keep track of how many times you’ve repeated the mantra.

· Hold your mala with one hand.

· Place two fingers around one of the beads next to the guru bead. Let it drape across your fingers so you can move it easily. Many people use their thumb and middle finger, as some religious traditions avoid using the index finger.

· Complete one full breath (inhale and exhale).

· Move your fingers to the next bead, breathing in and out once per bead.

· Finish at the guru bead to complete 108 breaths.

· If you want to do another round, move your fingers in the opposite direction until you reach the guru bead again.

· Look for a mala that speaks to you. Traditional mala necklaces have 108 beads, in addition to a guru bead, which is larger than the rest of the bas and often has a tassel.

· If 108 beads seem a little long for your needs, you can also find malas with 54 or 27 beads. Some full malas include beads of different shapes after every 27th bead. This can help you keep track of your repetitions while giving you the option of doing a shorter meditation with 27 or 54 beads.

Fidget Cubes, Spinners, and Rings

A fidget cube can be a meditation aid. You can click it once for every word of a mantra. Fidget spinners can also be suitable objects of focus for mindfulness meditations. Try to focus on what the spinner looks like as it’s moving and speeding up or slowing down, or the sound of it spinning and shifting speed. You can also close your eyes and feel the vibration of the spin against your finger or fingers.

Items such as the Tibetan Prayer Wheel, the Chinese Baoing Balls (metal balls small enough to hold in one hand), and the Greek Worry Beads all were designed for calming the mind. Or experiment with a spinner Ring, also called a Meditation Ring. Meditation rings are designed to have one or more outer bands to spin around the base ring. The spinning motion helps one channel anxious energy into spinning the bands and clearing the mind by focusing on the flows and spins of the Meditation Ring.

Release your emotions to anchor you on God and meditative prayer

The more you can access your heart space, the easier it is to let your natural feelings of love flow in you. This flow anchors your meditative prayer if you connect it with God and spiritual expressions. Many find professional therapy helpful in removing blocks to the flow of natural emotions all of kinds.

Gaze upon an icon and image that stirs you emotionally. Think of Jesus’ life and life-giving actions of love for all of us to open up you sense of gratitude. Thinking of Jesus’ devotion and well as Mary and other beings of light to us can stir your devotion to them.

Music for meditation, poetry, and art that moves you can help to let your life-giving sacred feelings. A newer meditation aid related to icons and art is a moving mandala created specifically for meditative prayer, which you can view on your cell phone, iPad, or computer. Here is one such example.

If any of these interest or attract you, try them. You may need to experiment with several. You may want to start small with just a few minutes. As you progress, you can go longer. With practice, you can find a pathway to meditative prayer that fits you.

How To Meditate Upside Down