Sanctioning A Pray Day: a tool for sculpting your life

Neither the pious church goer, nor the priest has a patent on prayer. Prayer is gift given freely to us all by a kind and generous creator. It is a tool the universe longs for us to use. Prayer is our lifeline to the creator, and the vehicle through which we invite the universe to create beauty and blessings in the world through us.  

Several years ago, my life  changed when I read a book written by author, spiritual activist, and lecturer Marianne Williamson. The book, A Return to Love: A Reflection on a Course In Miracles opened a window into a world I had always longed for, but never knew how to access. One way I learned to access that wondrous place of love, beauty, and abundance in my everyday life was through prayer. Like a novice sculptor given her first chisel, I began to pray my way through the marble of my life–the results were breath-taking.

I have found that prayer is a somewhat ironic activity: it gives one confidence, but unless one remains humble one can forget the source of the blessings.

More than once I have given in to my ego: I would pray, have my prayers answered, and my self-confidence would increase. As my self-confidence increased, my ego would begin to inflate. But the thing I have discovered about prayer is that in order for me to ask for God's help, I would need to be humble enough to know that I needed my higher power. Whenever my ego gets too big, I no longer seek  my higher power's wisdom because I think I can handle it all on my own. I convince myself I don't have time to humble myself. And this is how I fall–alone.

When I am not co-creating with the universe, little by little my dreams turn into nightmares of my own making. 

I have been praying lately, but not as much as I would like. So I decided to do an experiment.

Yesterday, I chose to sanction as a "Pray Day". That did not mean that I sat in my house all day and prayed. No, life is dynamic and prayer is meant to be integrated into it. 


The Pray Day was an intention to devote myself to pray before any encounter, before any serious decision, after an argument or uncomfortable feeling, and any time I remembered throughout the day. The resultant peace was remarkable; a reminder to me of how valuable the simple act of prayer is to my life. 

What does praying look like for me? Praying for me takes many forms: when I awaken in the morning I get into child's pose and do a couple of memorized daily prayers turning my will and my life over to the care of God. Throughout the day my prayers may look to others as a deep breath with eyes closed or open; sometimes I open my arms to the sky like a chalice, other times I gaze at the floor, rarely do I clasp my hands in prayer. 

I may pray waiting in line at the grocery store or driving my car. Most of the time my prayers are internal and sound short and intimate: God, please bless my words that they may be truthful and loving; Universe, remind me of your love for me; Great Spirit, protect my children and keep them safe, healthy, and well. God, guide my thoughts and bless my beloved that he may be aware of your love for him. 

In my experience, the universe does not need perfect words or a perfect ritual, only an open heart willing to receive the blessings waiting to be given. Consider experimenting with a Pray Day: a day you invite the universe into every aspect of your life. 


After working with the tool of prayer, I have a suspicion that sculpting your life with your human hands alone will seem like rolling a boulder up a hill waiting for a statue to appear. With the chisel of prayer in your grasp, you may find that with a little tap here and a little tap there, your life will gracefully transform into a wondrous piece of living art. 

"The spiritual path-is simply the journey of living our lives. Everyone is on a spiritual path; most people just don't know it." ~Marianne Williamson 

"Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart." ~Mahatma Gandhi

Valuing the Dreamer

Being a dreamer in a world full of doers can challenge one's sense of worth. Leaving yoga the other night with my daughter I realized this. 


Heading home, my daughter shared how yoga helped her to feel "in her body;" something she struggles with. I completely understand. I often feel like I have to really work to be grounded. Like my daughter, I naturally exist in what I like to think of as the etheric plane... a dreamy place where innovative ideas, images, and words play and morph. 


She then explained how she often felt bad about herself because others have labeled her as "lazy." Here I was reminded of the yoga class we had just left. 


Two physical focuses of yoga are strength and flexibility*. Both are needed to fully actuate any pose, but rarely do individuals naturally possess both. Instead, the aim is to work towards the perfect pose in each moment. Some people are inherently more flexible, and so have to work on strength (like me); others are stronger, so for them becoming more flexible is the challenge. 


In the class we had just left, the teacher was emphasizing being observant of where our bodies were in the moment, without judgment. 


Neither strength, nor flexibility is inherently more valuable. Similarly, neither dreamers, nor doers are more valuable. In order to fully live, we need both. The doer without the dream becomes a frenetic automaton, checking off lists without taking in the snowflake wind. The dreamer without action grows the moss of stagnancy and depression, never actuating his or her brilliance. 


Like the insightful yoga instructor directed us to perceive our practice in the moment without judgment, we can benefit by learning to perceive our entire existence without judgment, one moment at a time. 


While the dreamer may be diminished in a world that revers movers and shakers, we must not forget that the dreamer is fraught with visions that will heal the world when actualized. 
And just as doers need to work on matching their activity with equal parts dreaming, the dreamer must ground and push into action, strengthening their bond to the earth in order to manifest the new world we all long for. 

The dreamer is far from lazy. The activities that takes place in the etheric realms dreamers access are vibrant, dynamic, and just as exhausting as moving one's body in the world. Do not underestimate the dreamers. They are the architects of an emerging consciousness. 

*I, in no way mean to simplify yoga. I understand that yoga has many components, but for the sake of this post I am focusing on these two aspects.

"The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do." ~Sarah Ban Breathnach

"We are all dreamers creating the next world, the next beautiful world for ourselves and for our children." ~Yoko Ono