The Connection Between Prayer and Meditation
In my practice, many people seek my guidance on their spiritual progress. They want to live more positively and many incorporate prayer into their daily routine.
A client came in the other day to discuss meditation. Like many novice to the practice, she kept telling me that she simply didn’t have time for it. She also told me that there had to be a quick, easy way to have God answer her prayers. I studied her for a moment and then asked:
“Praying is asking a question and meditation is listening for the answer. Do you often ask questions and run off?”
“Well, no!”
“Then how do you know you are being heard?”
Meditation is a rewarding way of connecting prayer with a higher power. It doesn’t matter whether you label that higher power your Higher Self, God, Source, or anything else, you will still need to hear beyond the experience of listening with the ear in order to truly hear the energy within. When we are in a prayerful state our spirit is communicating with that higher power and it is something greater than what we perceive in everyday life. Prayer then becomes a spiritual dialogue, (the intention) and if you do not incorporate the act of mindful listening (meditation), you will most likely lose the essence of the complete message and miss out on the answer on a deeper level.
So, when you are praying, remember to also give pause to hear beyond your surroundings to deep within the nature of the you within your spirit. I have found incredible insight comes to me when prayer and meditation are understood as companions: Prayer indulges the question (the intention) and meditation (the answer) is provided through silence.
Our present world is one that moves at an incredibly high-stress, fast pace. Many of us are used to working fast, typing fast, and living fast. We focus on social media streams rather than streams of consciousness. Switch that up and give yourself the time to reward your intentions by allowing the connection of meditation to accompany your prayers and you will shine your light brighter.
Originally published at intentblog.com on January 30, 2014.
Originally published at medium.com