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PRAYER THERAPY TECHNIQUE
Prayer Therapy Technique can help you learn the very short
but very powerful Jesus Prayer techniques that you can recite right away to
enhance your spiritual as well as you physical life. Learn to focus your attention, which is a subtle faculty of your spirit , in your heart.
The Jesus Prayer has first aid effects and it also has deep
therapeutic effects for the healing of the soul as well as the body. It is
prayer in which the first step of the holistic spiritual journey of body, mind,
heart, soul, and spirit is to be taken. The recognition of our disorder, our
essential estrangement from God is the primary state of mind necessary to be
begin true holistic healing. The Jesus Prayer is a prayer in which we admit our
need to be healed. Many times this healing involves liberation from the destructive effects of negative emotions or the passions.
Because heart centered prayer is a living reality, a deeply
personal encounter with the uncreated energies of the Triune God, it is not to
be restricted to any category or inflexible investigation. Even so, in an
effort to provide some broad, typical suggestions for all those considering
utilizing the Jesus Prayer to cultivate their inner life, Theophan the Recluse,
a Nineteenth century Russian spiritual author, differentiates three levels in
the saying of the Prayer: It starts as verbal prayer or prayer with the mouth,
a fairly easy recitation which Theophan describes as prayers' "verbal
expression and shape." Then there is prayer of the mind and prayer of the
mind in the heart
Just as the physician prescribes healing substances, so also
the name of Jesus when we invoke it with heart centered attention helps to heal
us from the negative influences of the passions, which weakens the immune
system resulting in disease states.
Our everyday situation, the problem of the entire human
race, is considered one of fallenness, of spiritual deception, of loss of
everlasting existence along with the continual illness of human nature in all
of us. Our default condition as human beings needs correcting so we can
overcome tendencies that make us prone to negative emotions and actions.
The Jesus Prayer technique is a modification of the
instructions given in the Philokalia ( and EOC) and HearthMath techniques. The key elements of the technique are: Focus
(in the area of the heart), generation of Appreciation, and Radiation of love
and care. In the midst of life's perpetual activity, this technique offers a
simple way to cultivate and increase sincere constructive emotions along with beneficial
nourishment for your body and mind.
Jesus Prayer Practice
- Gently shift your
attention to the area around your heart.
- Adjust your breathing in
order that you are inhaling and exhaling in the heart and out by means of the
solar plexus.
- Stimulate an authentic
emotion of thanks or care for someone or something in your daily life.
- Generate a genuine effort
to maintain emotions of gratitude, care or love while radiating them to
one-self as well as others.
- Whenever you find your
mind (attention) roaming or getting involved in negative thoughts and
emotions, carefully focus your
inhaling and exhaling back again in the heart and solar plexus and reunite
with genuine recitation of the Jesus Prayer
Use the Jesus Prayer throughout the day and tinge or imbue
your life with it.
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