It’s time to bring back prayer

There is absolutely no doubt the state of this world is fucked. It's like every day you hear of some new disaster with endless amounts of people suffering and dying. The empathy I feel makes my heart hurt so bad.

I am not religious and I don't follow any religion however, I am spiritual. I know there is something that makes us all connected. Some people call it god, or source, or the light, or the universe. It doesn't really matter. It all has the same goal, to bring us back to our truth. To bring us back to who we truly are. To bring us all back together. Don't get confused, to be spiritual is not to be perfect. There is no right or wrong way to be spiritual. It looks different for almost everyone.

I have been a huge fan of words of affirmation for over 15 years. I can honestly say it is one of the first things I did that helped me awaken to the person I am today. I have read and used many authors but the most influential author I discovered was Louise L. Hay. The book 'You Can Heal Your Life' is truly a gift to humanity.

We all know the powerful effect positivity has on our minds, body and life in general. Positive thinking has a huge ripple effect that changes your life. If you don’t know about this, you need to look into it.

I believe words of affirmation and prayer are very closely related. Words of affirmation are mostly about yourself; getting yourself to believe more positive aspects of who you are as a person and changing your thoughts to be more positive in general. Prayer on the other hand is opening your heart even further to expand that positivity on a larger scale.

Words of affirmation are not far from being a prayer. If you are in a habit of speaking words of affirmation, it shouldn't be hard to switch or include prayer. When you take on the act of speaking affirmations, you train your brain to recognise negativity. If you say something negative about yourself, you catch yourself and quickly change that to a positive affirmation. You repeat it until you believe it. Once you get into the habit of praying, you should be able to catch your negative thoughts and change it to a prayer. Instead of thinking the world is in a state of despair, change those thoughts to a prayer and wish the positivity to flood all over. Change "there is so much suffering" to "bless all the people in this world, let them find peace and safety as they deserve". Speak about what you want for other people and the world in general.

To pray is to not let the fear in, but to have faith and hope that a better day will come for not just yourself, but for everyone.

I feel like praying has always been viewed as something only old ladies do, or only super religious people do, or viewed to be "un-cool". Those old ladies were onto something. It has been sinisterly pushed out of being a normal part of our daily living; it needs to be bought back as it is needed now more than ever.

You can pray about anything and for anyone. Feeling sad of the state of the world? Say a prayer to wish it better, let all the energy within you and this world know what you truly want. Let out all your well wishes, let it know what is possible. Say a prayer for yourself, your life, your friends, your family, for health, for peace, for safety, for love, for wisdom, for anything your heart desires.

Your prayer does not have to be a perfect ritual. It doesn't have to happen exactly the same every time.

Say your prayer while you're laying in bed at night before you go to sleep.

Say it kneeling beside your bed any time of the day.

Say it while you are stuck in traffic driving to work.

Say it while you are sitting on the toilet.

Say it whenever and wherever you feel like it.

It does not need to involve religious connotations, just speak from the heart and that's all that matters. If you can't think of much to say, then repeat the prayer until it feels right and pause.

So, if you are like me and changed your thoughts to positive affirmations, you are not far from being able to pray. Catch those thoughts of despair and turn them into a positive prayer.

Steph