Prayer life ADD?

[st_felicity]

In my prayer life I have a lot of difficulty getting my brain to focus on God alone or on one specific thing. I always seem to have rapid thoughts banging around in my head sometimes just under the surface and somtimes they poke through and interrupt my prayer. It’s not the kind that I believe are interjected by a demonic source–rather, it may just be my own lack of attentiveness and laziness–sometimes it’s very spiritual thoughts that just tumble one on top of the other in chaos. It is constant and distracting from devotion.

What techniques do you use to quiet your mind for prayer?

 

[Lisa4Catholics]

st_felicity:

In my prayer life I have a lot of difficulty getting my brain to focus on God alone or on one specific thing. I always seem to have rapid thoughts banging around in my head sometimes just under the surface and somtimes they poke through and interrupt my prayer. It’s not the kind that I believe are interjected by a demonic source–rather, it may just be my own lack of attentiveness and laziness–sometimes it’s very spiritual thoughts that just tumble one on top of the other in chaos. It is constant and distracting from devotion.

What techniques do you use to quiet your mind for prayer?

Sometimes I would say short prayers,or when Praying the Rosary do one decade at a time I think with all the children we tend to plan every move out Our mind is on overdrive.

 

[st_felicity]

Lisa4Catholics:

Sometimes I would say short prayers,or when Praying the Rosary do one decade at a time I think with all the children we tend to plan every move out Our mind is on overdrive.

Funny you should mention that…Right now I’m sitting amid the rubble of my home. I’ve got a griping 8 month old running streams of muck from his nose and that smells like a public toilet sitting on my lap and I’ve got two in the tub tossing water at each other and all over the floor, the TV is running and no one is watching–my older two have disappeared to the pits of their rooms and I’ve only had one cup of coffee today…
You really think that has something to do with it???

Okay—gotta get to the mommy stuff and get off this here MAJOR tool of distraction!

Oh yeah–I missed doing my rosary this morning, so I’ll have to fit that in along the way…I just wanna pray…

 

[MariaG]

There is a great little book written by St. Fransis de Sales, Introduction to a Devout Life, written over 500 years ago. It really helped me as well as my priest’s advice.

His book is a step by step on how to lead a devout life. But the one thing concept that freed me from my unreasonable expectations of what I should be doing was this:

We can only truly lead a life pleasing to God when whatever our vocation is, we do it well. In other words, as a mother of 3 children, it is not pleasing to God for me to ignore my children so I can get 15 minutes of uninterrupted prayer time. I need to praise and worship Him** through **my vocation not in spite of it. As a Stay at home mom, I can grumble about wiping my child’s nose, picking up the toys, cleaning house, fixing dinner, grumble about NO ONE picking up after themselves…OR I can do all of those things in an attitude that makes them an offering to God!

And my priest said instead of trying to find a chunk of time to pray, say a bunch of short prayers all day long. As I wipe my child’s nose, “Thank you Jesus for the finances that I can be home to take care of my kids.” As I do the dishes, pray the our father one time. Pick up the Hot Spots (the spots that if one item gets put there, it multiplies if not taken care of immediately!) and sing Amen! Saying the rosary outloud as you clean, describing each mystery to even your 8 month old. What a gift to give your child, growing up cleaning the house to the mysteries of the Rosary!

And just an aside to the organization and cleaning of my home, I found the website flylady.net/ that as wierd as it seems, helps me to keep my house cleaner than before. I am still working on the “baby steps” of the concept, but I can answer my door and let someone in the house now where before I would have had to kill them so the information on how messy my house was wouldn’t get out

God Bless,
Maria

 

[st_felicity]

MariaG:

There is a great little book written by St. Fransis de Sales, Introduction to a Devout Life, written over 500 years ago. It really helped me as well as my priest’s advice.

His book is a step by step on how to lead a devout life. But the one thing concept that freed me from my unreasonable expectations of what I should be doing was this:

We can only truly lead a life pleasing to God when whatever our vocation is, we do it well. In other words, as a mother of 3 children, it is not pleasing to God for me to ignore my children so I can get 15 minutes of uninterrupted prayer time. I need to praise and worship Him** through **my vocation not in spite of it. As a Stay at home mom, I can grumble about wiping my child’s nose, picking up the toys, cleaning house, fixing dinner, grumble about NO ONE picking up after themselves…OR I can do all of those things in an attitude that makes them an offering to God!

And my priest said instead of trying to find a chunk of time to pray, say a bunch of short prayers all day long. As I wipe my child’s nose, “Thank you Jesus for the finances that I can be home to take care of my kids.” As I do the dishes, pray the our father one time. Pick up the Hot Spots (the spots that if one item gets put there, it multiplies if not taken care of immediately!) and sing Amen! Saying the rosary outloud as you clean, describing each mystery to even your 8 month old. What a gift to give your child, growing up cleaning the house to the mysteries of the Rosary!

And just an aside to the organization and cleaning of my home, I found the website flylady.net/ that as wierd as it seems, helps me to keep my house cleaner than before. I am still working on the “baby steps” of the concept, but I can answer my door and let someone in the house now where before I would have had to kill them so the information on how messy my house was wouldn’t get out

God Bless,
Maria

Thanks Maria…now I feel a little…smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/16/16_3_158.gifish…

Excellent advice–I like hokey things like that Flylady to keep me motivated–I will be looking it over (after grocery shopping) I’ve saved it to my favorites…

Well, now…the house is (moderately clean), the baby is napping the young ones are dressed and snacking, the dishwasher is running, (the older ones are bickering–but hey, nobody’s perfect!)

Even so…When all is quiet and the home pressures are (relatively) off…I still have the swirling thinking–I’ll check out that Inroduction to a Devout Life–sounds like what I’m looking for…meanwhile…any “quick tricks” for focusing attention?

 

[MariaG]

Even so…When all is quiet and the home pressures are (relatively) off…I still have the swirling thinking–I’ll check out that Inroduction to a Devout Life–sounds like what I’m looking for…meanwhile…any “quick tricks” for focusing attention?
At a youth conference that I just got back from with my kids, she said when her thoughts are whirling and she can’t focus, she just takes a deep breath in and says “Jesus” lets the breath slowly out and says “Mercy” It is also just a short prayer but works.

As for the swirling thinking, once again, I have to go to flylady. Because it helps me to organize what needs to be done, get done what needs to be done, I am able to then focus my thoughts better. I cannot focus on prayer if I know I haven’t decided what’s for dinner, or my house is cluttered. I know most people start off the day with prayer, but I find the best prayer time for me is afternoons when I have the little one down for a nap, the house is relatively picked up, and I have dinner in the crockpot. Instead of trying to force myself into first morning prayer, I just accept that I won’t stop trying to multitask until most of the tasks are done!

And even then, when I have the most trouble focusing, I do contemplative prayer like the rosary. I just try to focus on one aspect of Christ’s life and place myself at the scene. I don’t think, okay, I am going to say all the sorrowful mysteries, I just think okay, I am going to think on the 1st. That way I can focus and get done what I set out to do. If I have more time, I do more, but I do not try “plan” to do them all. (I just realized I just gave you another tip from the “Introduction to a Devout Life” ) I find it easier to focus when I place myself in the scene and imagine how I would have felt witnessing, for example, His crucifixion. How would I have felt if I were Mary, etc. I also find that when my attention is severly deficit, it is easiest to focus on the sorrowful mysteries or for some reason, the Annunciation. I can really get into focusing on Mary and her obedience to God, how she must have felt, etc.

I also find that when focusing on Christ’s life, placing myself at the scene, the Holy Spirit is then able to reach my quieted thoughts and sometimes places prayer needs for myself and others in my mind related to the mysteries that I am contemplating.

I hope this helps. And to be completely honest, I have not yet finished the book Intro to a Devout life even though I started it a year ago. Talk about feeling sheepish! But I figure I am still working on that stuff and reach deeper later on. Probably once the kids are in college But like I said, the basic concept has really helped me to try to focus on my vocation, realize that I honor God more when I do my job well, and not that I did not get my whole rosary said. And because of that, I have more time to say the rosary!

God Bless,
Maria

 

[st_felicity]

SOOOO Excellent Maria! The breathe in and out Jesus and Mercy I think will help some–and to hear that others face the same as I and that it really is okay to make our vocation a prayer will help me. It’s when I start to forget that it is a vocation and pleasing to God (even in my failures) that I lose that much more focus. I think I need to carve out an hour to go before the Blessed Sacrament and talk with God about this all–that’s part of why I want some tips for clearing my mind and focusing on God–so that hour can be as productive as I allow God to make it!

Thank you again–you have been super helpful!

And I still gotta check out that FlyLady, thing, but I’ll wait 'til the kids are down for the night!

 

[MariaG]

about the flylady thing, I just sign up for the email reminders. There are a lot, but if I don’t have time to do them, I just delete. But they get stuck in your head and help you remember even when you don’t look at your mail.

God Bless,

Maria

 

[Mamamull]

Hi,

I am the queen of the ADD people, I just keep forgetting to tell all of you. My scores – yep I got and I am so bad with numbers that I can’t remember whether my BADS was 204 or 240.

My brain is quite hyperactive, too. The kids and the ADHD dog – a Jack Russell terrier, do help to keep me going in circles. I do try to say something simple now and again during the day. The Blessed Mother is one of my favorites.

I have found that going to Eucharistic Adoration in the middle of the night – 2:00 or 3:00 AM works very well for me. I may be drowsy, but my worries are usually distant by then. I can sometimes listen quietly – a truly awesome moment.

I do find that adoration is just wonderful for my soul.

Other things I do are to seriously slow my breathing rate – usually the rapid shallow breaths are a stress reaction and breathing deeply is better for me.

I also pull out a song from my brain – Schubert’s Ave Maria is good. I have to breathe deeply to sing it. It sends the kids scurrying – and I use it while restraining the newest member of our family – a five year old boy with Attachment issues. It calms me. I don’t mean to make the family suffer, but hey, some day, I might get to sing it solo at a wedding - really.

I pray some of my favorite prayers. St. Michael the Archangel is so helpful to this sinner. I pray to my kids guardian angels to keep me from killing them – the kids and that is a joke.

I also am learning to say prayers in Latin – the Pater Noster is up for memorization. I am kind of trying to learn the Rosary in Latin since I have found it makes pay better attention.

Now, sometimes, I just ask the Holy Spirit to take control because I can’t. Wish I had an easy answer, but that is what helps me.