Prayer as Mindfulness

I had this insight the other day while driving to work a few weeks ago. I was thinking about mindfulness, a technique used for anxiety. The definition of mindfulness is a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique. 

I'm still learning to use mindfulness myself. It's definitely something that's hard to use in the moment of anxiety, just because when I finally get to a moment where anxiety is bad enough that it's bothering me, I've already gone down a road of multiple thoughts and worries that get me there. It's hard to piece through them and see which thoughts aren't true and which are. With mindfulness, you're supposed to be able to deal with the anxiety by accepting what is real and what isn't and just staying in the present moment. 

A few weeks before this thought, I'd been getting to work way earlier than I needed to, so I thought that maybe I'd try to practice some mindfulness exercises before I went in. That didn't go well because it got hot in the car, and there were sketchy people in the parking lot. So I just went into work and got started with my day. 

The next few days I decided to use those extra minutes to just talk with Heavenly Father. I'd go through everything in my life that I was grateful for, and realized all these things going for me that I hadn't. I'd tell him about my worries and thoughts, and as I was talking these things out with him, I would just see things in these situations that I hadn't noticed before, and things wouldn't seem as bad or crazy as they had before. 

Going through the act of praying made me stay in the present moment and examine it for what it was. I was looking at my life and situations as they were. I was thinking about why I thought about things in a certain way. And then it hit me. 

Praying is mindfulness! The act of praying and talking with my Heavenly Father is literally the act of mindfulness. And I did notice a difference. On those mornings where I took the time to pray, I had a better day. My anxiety was less. I was able to deal with things better. I know part of that is because I was actually praying and communing with Him, and He was helping me get through the day. But the other part is because I was doing the very things that scientists and my therapist tell me help with anxiety. 

I'm now even more excited to pray. I already think it's so cool that I actually get to talk one on one with the Creator of the universe. But the very act of talking to Him and communication is a way to get through my specific trials. So cool.