I deeply and strongly believe that the Catholic prayer and meditation tradition is strong.* I am concerned about my posture during prayer, meditation and spiritual reading.* I tend to fall into a pattern of sitting on the couch with my feet up–the same position I do all of my reading, online time, relaxing etc.* I feel like I should be doing something different.* I’ve tried kneeling on the floor but become distracted by the physical sensations within 5 to 10*minutes
Can I use meditation pillows out of an eastern tradition to address this or should I stick to a strictly kneeling/prie dieu posture?* Should I just “fight my way through” the discomfort until I can kneel for lengthy periods without it being distracting?
Even in the Buddhist tradition there are allowances for people who can’t sit in the lotus position for extended periods of time (N.B., that Buddhist prayer postures are influenced by Hindu Yogic Spirituality). Find what is comfortable for you and stick with it.
Also look at
The Nine Ways of Prayer of St Dominic, especially the
Eighth Way of Prayer.
OUR FATHER, Saint Dominic, had yet another manner of praying at once beautiful, devout, and pleasing, which he practiced after the canonical hours and the thanksgiving following meals. He was then zealous and filled with the spirit of devotion which he drew from the divine words which had been sung in the choir or refectory. Our father quickly withdrew to some solitary place, to his cell or elsewhere, and recollected himself in the presence of God. He would sit quietly, and after the sign of the cross, begin to read from a book opened before him. His spirit would then be sweetly aroused as if he heard Our Lord speaking, as we are told in the psalms: "I will hear what the Lord God will speak to me . . . (Ps. 84:9). As if disputing with a companion he would first appear somewhat impatient in his thought and words. At the next moment he would become a quiet listener, then again seem to discuss and contend. He seemed almost to laugh and weep at the same time, and then, attentively and submissively, would murmur to himself and strike his breast.
Should some curious person have desired to watch our holy father Dominic, he would have appeared to him like Moses who went into the desert, to Horeb, the sacred mountain of God, and there beheld the burning bush and heard the Lord speaking to him as he was bowed down in the divine presence. This holy custom of our father seems, as it were, to resemble the prophetic mountain of the Lord inasmuch as he quickly passed upwards from reading to prayer, from prayer to meditation, and from meditation to contemplation.
When he read alone in this solitary fashion, Dominic used to venerate the book, bow to it, and kiss it. This was especially true if he was reading the Gospels and when he had been reading the very words which had come from the mouth of Christ. At other times he would hide his face and cover it with his cappa, or bury his face in his hands and veil it slightly with the capuce. Then he would weep, all fervent and filled with holy desires. Following this, as if to render thanks to some person of great excellence for benefits received, he would reverently rise and incline his head for a short time. Wholly refreshed and, in great interior peace, he then returned to his book.
domcentral.org/trad/domdocs/0005.htm
