Contemplative Prayer

So the past 2 weeks or so, I've been trying something new in my personal walk with Jesus. It isn't "new" necessarily, because it has been around for centuries, but it's my first go around, so it is new to me. It's called contemplative or centering prayer. Basically it is just meditation, or communing with God. You pick a word, mine is "peace" and try to use that word to focus on clearing your head, for an extended period of time.  

I am absolutely awful at it. I've been starting small trying to keep my mind clear for short amounts of time, before I go to the full normal amount. It is so hard. I probably can't go five minutes without going off on a tangent in my head about what I ate, or movies, or reading. It sucks, but I've been told it takes a long time to get it down. Right now my time is at 15 minutes, and I believe I'll stick to that until I can successfully give God that much time. Then I'll move it up.

The positive side of all this, is that I can feel the power of it. Even though I'm not doing it exactly how it is intended, it is working. It relaxes my mind, at least a little bit, and allows me to find that peace in my soul that I need. Helping me to balance out worry, and mostly with things that frustrate me, because I am so much more calm afterwards. 

There are a few variations you can add, like saying the Lord's Prayer at the end, or praying at the beginning, which I might have to try. Most of all, I just hope that at some point, I will be able to hear God through this, perhaps even audibly, maybe not. It might just be that I get a clearer perspective on life, if so, then it will be well worth it, regardless of other outcomes.

-A.P.