By John Arnold
Does your mind wander when you start to pray? If so, you are not alone. Many people are having a harder and harder time focusing while praying. Cultural and technological shifts are conditioning people to have shorter attention spans. The good news is that there are steps you can take to rein in a wandering mind during prayer.
Before delving into the solutions, take a moment and consider why your mind wanders. Knowing why your mind wanders will help you know the best course of action to take to become more focused. There are three primary causes for someone's attention to shift: distraction, boredom and conditioning.
Distractions occur internally and externally. Intense emotion or an overwhelmed mind are examples of internal distractions. A fight with a co-worker, financial strain, or deep loss, can so preoccupy your mind that it becomes almost impossible to focus. External distractions can be things like interruptions, noise, or physical discomfort. Any of these can challenge your ability to focus.
Boredom becomes a factor when your prayer life becomes so routine that you are no longer mentally engaged by it. You are just going through the motions. Once that happens, it is very easy to mentally check out.
Many people struggle with focus because their attention span has been conditioned by technology to be very short. If you speak in tweets and texts all day long having an extended one-on-one conversation with God may be extremely difficult. Multi-tasking can also whittle away at your ability to focus your attention. So what is the solution?
Each of these three primary causes areas addressable. Some internal distractions are unavoidable and the best thing to do in those situations is to make the distraction the focus of you prayer. For example, if you are trying to pray for someone but all you can think about is you troubled marriage, then pull that directly into the center of your prayers.
Create a set time and place where you are unlikely to be interrupted is one of the best tactics for weeding out external distractions. For example, you may have to awaken before everyone else to have some privacy. Having a prayer closet that you can literal enter into can also be a great focus assets.
Boredom can be overcome by engaging your mind through the use of a devotional guide. A devotional guide will also broaden your prayer life as well. Similarly, adopting a new prayer model can reengage your mind by mixing up your routine a bit.
You can also physically engage in prayer in order to focus. For example, journaling your prayers will push you to stay focused. It becomes pretty obvious that you are distracted when you pen stops moving. The physical act of writing will keep you attention focused. Similarly, you can pray out loud or sing prayers and you instantly be aware when you thoughts go elsewhere.
Lastly, you can recondition your mind to be more focused. Begin by eliminating as much multi-tasking as you can. Also, limit being constantly interruptible by disabling email alerts, or turning your cell phone off form time to time. If you will "single task" regularly for 20 to 30 minute intervals, you can dramatically recondition your mind to focus. This not only enhances you prayer life, but also your productivity.
In conclusion, you can harness your focus by mentally and physically engaging in prayer. The key is to select one or two strategies and work them consistently until you begin to see results. Then layer in a few more focus strategies. Overtime you will find yourself sustaining your focus better.
About the Author:
Struggling with prayer?Click to read more. (http://www.tipsonprayer.com/) Or, check out John's game-changingebook on prayer (http://www.amazon.com/Tips-Prayer-Quickstart-Improving-ebook/dp/B0096RI0OG/) , "Tips On Prayer, A Quickstart Guide to Improving Your Prayer Life.
Does your mind wander when you start to pray? If so, you are not alone. Many people are having a harder and harder time focusing while praying. Cultural and technological shifts are conditioning people to have shorter attention spans. The good news is that there are steps you can take to rein in a wandering mind during prayer.
Before delving into the solutions, take a moment and consider why your mind wanders. Knowing why your mind wanders will help you know the best course of action to take to become more focused. There are three primary causes for someone's attention to shift: distraction, boredom and conditioning.
Distractions occur internally and externally. Intense emotion or an overwhelmed mind are examples of internal distractions. A fight with a co-worker, financial strain, or deep loss, can so preoccupy your mind that it becomes almost impossible to focus. External distractions can be things like interruptions, noise, or physical discomfort. Any of these can challenge your ability to focus.
Boredom becomes a factor when your prayer life becomes so routine that you are no longer mentally engaged by it. You are just going through the motions. Once that happens, it is very easy to mentally check out.
Many people struggle with focus because their attention span has been conditioned by technology to be very short. If you speak in tweets and texts all day long having an extended one-on-one conversation with God may be extremely difficult. Multi-tasking can also whittle away at your ability to focus your attention. So what is the solution?
Each of these three primary causes areas addressable. Some internal distractions are unavoidable and the best thing to do in those situations is to make the distraction the focus of you prayer. For example, if you are trying to pray for someone but all you can think about is you troubled marriage, then pull that directly into the center of your prayers.
Create a set time and place where you are unlikely to be interrupted is one of the best tactics for weeding out external distractions. For example, you may have to awaken before everyone else to have some privacy. Having a prayer closet that you can literal enter into can also be a great focus assets.
Boredom can be overcome by engaging your mind through the use of a devotional guide. A devotional guide will also broaden your prayer life as well. Similarly, adopting a new prayer model can reengage your mind by mixing up your routine a bit.
You can also physically engage in prayer in order to focus. For example, journaling your prayers will push you to stay focused. It becomes pretty obvious that you are distracted when you pen stops moving. The physical act of writing will keep you attention focused. Similarly, you can pray out loud or sing prayers and you instantly be aware when you thoughts go elsewhere.
Lastly, you can recondition your mind to be more focused. Begin by eliminating as much multi-tasking as you can. Also, limit being constantly interruptible by disabling email alerts, or turning your cell phone off form time to time. If you will "single task" regularly for 20 to 30 minute intervals, you can dramatically recondition your mind to focus. This not only enhances you prayer life, but also your productivity.
In conclusion, you can harness your focus by mentally and physically engaging in prayer. The key is to select one or two strategies and work them consistently until you begin to see results. Then layer in a few more focus strategies. Overtime you will find yourself sustaining your focus better.
About the Author:
Struggling with prayer?Click to read more. (http://www.tipsonprayer.com/) Or, check out John's game-changingebook on prayer (http://www.amazon.com/Tips-Prayer-Quickstart-Improving-ebook/dp/B0096RI0OG/) , "Tips On Prayer, A Quickstart Guide to Improving Your Prayer Life.