Now that most of us are confined at home, as we embrace the magnitude of this outer collective situation, the word “prayer” stands out in my heart and it seems to make more sense than ever.

But what does prayer really mean?

I would love to share my experience and reflections with you.

Prayer to me is a unique way of describing a connected aliveness within. I experience prayer as a tickle, a movement, a vibration, a flow between my unique and innermost intimate space, and the entire universe.

Prayer, we could say, is activated or expansive healing meditation. While it contains the mysteries of a dormant seed, with it’s complete stillness and quiet, it is also covered with invisible golden strings connected to the whole universe, actively feeding each other, interconnected, supportive in infinite directions.

Prayer does not contain the urge of becoming better and it is not a practice based on working with one’s own inner “mess”, it is not about observing the breath, or holding a specific posture but rather about cultivating the art of becoming humble, vulnerable, and embracing with dignity the great mysteries of life.

As we pray, we can still simultaneously remain in the unknown and paradoxically be at ease with it all. The aim of prayer is not to solve our questions or find a way out of our discomfort or the world’s tragedies, but rather to meet a frequency of love that exists through all the waves of life.

Prayer is gratitude and connection, aliveness and deep togetherness.

An image that I find helpful is one of a bright candle in my heart, simply offering it’s light to the world while feeling a warmth and glow inside. Maybe a good way to start praying is to become intimate with yourself, holding your inner candle as a way of holding your own heart as it is, with all it’s beauty, vulnerability and potential.

Then from this intimate, inner place, connect with the joy of expanding outwards, slowly reaching out first to the people and places you know and love, and then beyond what is known and familiar to you.

This is a playful invitation: not only to keep a moment of your day aside for prayer or meditation but to keep your inner candle lit throughout the whole day, keeping alive a bond between your sacred inner space and the entire world.

You do not even need to know how to do it, but simply play with finding paths to your own heart and then open the doors so that connection can happen.

It is to reach out, to what we could call bigger forces or wiser energies: Love, God, Source…

Ultimately we could say that prayer is to wake up to the sacredness of life and embrace the Goddess within.

As we become ourselves and meet the joy of a connected life, prayer becomes alive within as an on-going song bridging the inner and the outer world. We never stop praying, and the world drinks from this healing and supportive energy as it has always been.

Now, as we rediscover the power of prayer, we might have the chance to value again these subtler ways of becoming intimate and supporting each other, beyond the need of physical togetherness or switching on the internet, as we did for millennia. We can begin to understand that perhaps we as individuals and as society need to go back to honouring the people fully dedicated to prayer such as nuns and monks, hermits, healers, mystics and sages.

Yes, after all we might realize that the energies that keep us and our world alive aren’t the economy or politics but that which emanate from people that are deeply connected, fully themselves, living from the heart in constant gratitude and prayer.

May we all keep our inner flame lit, and become a bridge, a song, as we bow down to the sacredness of everything.

With love

Gemma

With gratitude to Sophia Style for encouraging me to write and helping with the editing.