Derech L’Tefilla – A Path to Prayer
Jewish prayers and rituals can help to strengthen our mental well-being and resilience. For those who connect with prayer, it can be a meaningful way toward healing. Prayer can help us channel our thoughts into concrete action, projecting our care, love and hope out into the world.
- Find a space where you can calm your mind, either sitting or standing. In the Jewish prayer tradition, a core component of the three daily prayer services is called the Amida, the standing prayer, which can serve as a meaningful model for a prayer stance. You stand with your feet planted on the ground and your legs together and pray for the collective well-being of their community.
- Close your eyes and meditate on your anxieties and hopes, and breathe. Another core component of the Jewish prayer service is the Shema, which we recite with our eyes closed, to create a space where we can concentrate and hear the words of our prayers.
- Once you have reached a state of relative calm, recite whatever prayer you like – or a personal prayer of your own – in whatever language you are most comfortable with.
- Sometimes there are no words that can truly capture the range of emotions we feel, and that is OK. In the Hasidic tradition, there is a concept of silent meditation and unstructured prayer called “Hitbodedut,” which was popularized by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. Practiced by many people daily, Hitbodedut is a silent prayer where one pours out their hearts and feelings to God in a private space. Regarding someone who is unable to find the right words, Rebbe Nachman suggested: “Even when one cannot speak at all, or says only a single word—it is also very good!” (Likutei Moharan, Part II 96:1)
By The Blue Dove Foundation
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