I often hear from people who are looking to have a greater sense of connection to prayer, and looking to get into the “heart” of prayer. 

Here is one possible approach. See if it increases your presence in prayer.  It may be especially helpful if you are new to prayers, either a convert or someone who is beginning to pray.

Get in touch with the movement of prayers and their deeper meaning, and then slowly add in the phrases and words. 

When you stand up, see the "alef" in your own being, standing as God's representative on earth.    Adorn yourself with Divine qualities:  majestic, glorious, honored.

I consider myself second to none
since I have realized in myself the One alone

[Hazrat Inayat Khan]

When one would say "Allahu akbar" by raising the hands to the ear, put everything in this world and the next behind you.   only God  

Then come, draw near.   prostrate yourself.   

Return to the soil that you come from:   utter humility.   “Fana”:  the passing away of the illusion of separation, of being cut off from God, from humanity, from nature.   Let that part wash away from you, and return to the soil.

Then sit up again on your knees: a new life, like a tender shoot that rises from the soil.

And again, prostration: the "die before you die" that the Beloved Prophet mentioned:  we all have to die physically.  But there is the chance to experience a life eternal here and now.  There is that eternal life that comes before and goes after the physical death.   

And repeat

Much of prayer is a balance, a harmonizing of the state of majesty in the standing, and the humility in bowing down and prostration.   We are both.    We need both.  And these are the two wings with which we soar.

The journey to God is not a light switch, but a deepening, a ripening, a sweetening. 

Be gentle with yourself.

If you find that your mind wanders,

welcome it back to where your feet are.

Have your heart be where your feet are.

There is a grace in the “returning” to that presence.

Become intimate with these cycles, motions, movements, and then add the words

#Prayer #salat #namaz #sajda #presence