Let me share 10 Centering Prayer tips.
- The best way to start your day is with a morning silent sit.
- A second sit will refill your reservoir. Never underestimate the power of a second sit.
- Flex your sits. I sometimes sit three times per day. Each sit is thirteen minutes. I have found this to be very helpful with the ebbs and flows of life.
- If you miss a sit, don’t beat yourself up. God’s love for you never stops. God looks forward to your next silent sit.
- During the work day, if you are able to get away, a silent sit in your car will work. I do so before lunch, in the late afternoon or right before I leave to drive home.
- At home I sometimes light a candle and then begin my sit. I blow the candle out after my sit.
- If you like to walk or ride a bike, a sit in a park where you can find some solitude is nice. I have done so in the summer months.
- After each sit, I pray with a prayer rope. You can learn more at my prayer rope post. I also like to read a few pages of a book before I get up from my sit.
- It is always nice to sit in silence in community. If there is a local centering prayer group join them for a weekly sit. Silence in community is powerful.
- You can never fail at centering prayer. You simply need to show up.
this post may contain affiliate links
Remember, we enter centering prayer to sit with a God. There are no expectations. We sit because we love God.
However, during our non-silent times we seem to discover the fruits of this prayer. These are wonderful gifts given to us by God.
I have noticed the following fruits: an inner calmness and confidence, an excitement for life, solutions to challenges I face, inner nudges to try new things that are outside of my comfort zone.
What fruits have you noticed? Contact me and let me know. I would love to hear from you.
Go Further:
Check out my Start Here page.
Check out my favorite Centering Prayer Books
Centering Prayer One on One Coaching
Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening by Cynthia Bourgeault.
Open Mind, Open Heart 20th Anniversary Edition by Thomas Keating
Healing the Divide: Recovering Christianity’s Mystic Roots by Amos Smith.
If you enjoyed reading this post, please recommend and share it to help others find it.
One on One Coaching with Rich
Does this sound like you?
“I am bored with my life?”
“I am not doing the things that I want to do in all areas of my life:”
-career, personal, family, community.
I feel unfulfilled, like I am just going through the motions everyday.
I have dreams and goals, but I am afraid to show up and take action on them.
I don’t want years to pass and be disappointed when I look back on my life.
Integrating Centering Prayer practice with your everyday life addresses all of these thoughts.
Do you want to obtain the freedom to become your true self, the person I’m created to be?
How do I create a long lasting and sustainable centering prayer practice?
I am currently taking on clients for Centering Prayer One on One Coaching sessions.
I will work with you to setup a program designed to meet your specific needs.
Centering Prayer by Cynthia Bourgeault: Centering Prayer is a simple, no-frills form of meditation in the Christian tradition. Since it was first developed by Christian contemplative monks in the 1970s, it has allowed tens of thousands of practitioners worldwide to “return home,” developing an authentically Christian meditation practice which not only delivers the healing and quieting of the mind typical of all meditation paths, but also reconnects directly to Christianity’s hidden treasury of mystical and transformational wisdom.
Centering Prayer as a Way of Life by Contemplative Outreach, Pamela Begeman, Mary Anne Best, Julie Saad: In this, the third offering of this year’s trilogy on Centering Prayer, we will explore how the practice of Centering Prayer evolves into a surrendered life of inner peace and equanimity despite the busy and often tumultuous circumstances of daily life in the 21st century. As the inner room begins to expand its walls beyond the twice-daily practice of Centering Prayer, the Spirit takes over our life more and more, and we begin to accept ourselves just as we are, God as God is, and all reality as it is. From this disposition of true humility, enlarged under the influence of God’s grace, we live in the Kingdom of God here and now, which is a state of consciousness ever-attentive to the presence of God in the midst of ordinary life.
Centering Prayer Course: A Training Course for Opening to the Presence of God – Centering Prayer is a silent prayer practice that can move you toward a profound relationship with the Spirit of God within. It is a way of praying that opens the door to the Divine Indwelling—the ground of our being. With Centering Prayer, Father Thomas Keating and his colleagues Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler and Father Carl Arico present the first online course in this method for deepening your intimacy with God and ultimately consenting to the presence and action of the Divine in all aspects of your life.
The Wisdom Jesus by Cynthia Bourgeault: Jesus first and foremost is a Wisdom teacher, grounded in the universal traditions of spiritual transformation, and the first teacher of non-dual consciousness the West had ever seen. Almost two thousand years ahead of his time, he stands in the lineage of the great Jewish prophets, the master “cardiologist” entrusted with implementing the promise made to the prophet Ezekiel: “I will take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
Hi Rich,
These are great suggestions. Jan (my wife) and I are putting together an e-course on contemplative practice and the brain. Part of our weekly suggestions are ways to “remember” to pause and reconnect during the day.
Repeated brief sits are definitely one way. I find that looking ahead to times when I expect some reactive emotions are likely to come up, and seeing myself in that situation connected to inner calm, responding in a way moved by greater empathy and care, can be very helpful. Then remembering, perhaps a short time prior to that event, to reconnect – even for a minute – can further strengthen the resolve to act from wisdom and compassion rather than reactive thoughts and emotions.
Thanks for your suggestions.
Hi Don – Thanks for stopping by! I will peruse your site. Your suggestions above good ones! I will try them as I approach upcoming events that are more stressful for me.