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This imaginative prayer is based on the beginning of Matthew 5.
Duration: 10 minutes 58 seconds | Posture: any | Equipment needed: none but you might want to write in your journal | Benefits: helping you to connect with Jesus, mental flexibility and creativity.
About Imaginative Prayer
Imaginative prayer involves placing yourself in a bible story and imagining what it would be like. It can be a good way of bringing the story to life and connecting with Jesus. You can use your senses to imagine what it would have looked, smelled, tasted, felt and sounded like but you don’t need to aim for historical accuracy in imaginative contemplation – it’s simply a creative tool to help you connect with the divine.
About soul care / contemplative prayer:
Contemplative prayer is all about experiencing and deeping your relationship with the divine. It is meditative and reflective and goes well with other practices such as yoga and mindfulness. It’s an invitation to be in the present moment, letting the divine speak to you exactly where you are and using the prayers as tools to lead you into deeper relationship with the divine.
In the book ‘Prayer of Heart and Body’, author Fr Thomas Ryan talks about atunement with the divine and uses the example of tuning into a particular radio station. The idea is that the divine is always there, we just need to tune in. This is not always easy to do and that’s why these spiritual practices can help us. I call them ‘soul care tools’ because they are useful tools to help us care for our souls.
A note on language: so many of us (myself included) have experienced some form of spritual abuse in our faith communities. I’m deliberately avoiding words that can trigger spiritual trauma (including my own) by using words like ‘ the divine’ and ‘the spirit of love’. The bible is full of people who came up with their own names for the divine, based on characteristics like love and faithfulness – you might like to do the same. I also try to avoid using male pronouns for the divine (except for Jesus because we know that he was male). There will be times when I forget and revert to the names and pronouns that I was brought up with so I apologise in advance.
Contraindications
This recording may not be suitable for you if you are experiencing mental health issues or severe trauma. If you’re unsure, please seek advice from your doctor or a mental health professional.
What to do if you experience trauma symptoms
If at any point you start to experience trauma symptoms – perhaps overwhelming emotions, body sensations or images/flashbacks – I would invite you to consider taking a break, pausing the video, opening your eyes if they’re not already open and try a self-soothing practice. This might be looking around the room and noticing what’s around you. It might be taking some gentle movement like walking around or stretching. You could try some soothing self-touch like self-massage, putting a hand over your heart, tapping or self-massage. Or you could take some deeper breaths. (View more resources that can help you when experiencing trauma symptoms in your trauma toolkit). When you’re ready, you can come back to the recording at any time. There’s no pressure to continue pushing through or to get to the end of the recording.
Disclaimer
It’s your responsibility to make sure that you’re mentally and physically safe, ready, well and able to take part safely in the practices offered in the community, including, but not limited to, yoga, mindfulness, self-compassion exercises, self-reflection, readings and community meetup sessions. This may include:
- Seeking and following advice from a medical professional, a mental health practitioner, physiotherapist or other professional before taking part in the practices if:
- you’re pregnant,
- you have an injury,
- you have had recent surgery
- you are experiencing pain or severe discomfort
- you are having difficulty breathing
- you have another physical or mental health condition which may affect your ability to participate safely in the practice
- you are experiencing trauma symptoms such as flashbacks, hypervigilence or overwhelming emotions or body sensations
- you’re experiencing any unexplained symptoms or undiagnosed conditions.
- Making sure that you don’t push through pain, discomfort, trauma symptoms, overwhelm and any other physical or mental symptoms that may arise when taking part in the practices and stopping the practice when you need to.
- Modifying your practice where appropriate.
- Following the contraindications offered (and any other advice from your medical professional) and avoiding practices that aren’t suitable for you.
We, and our associates, cannot accept responsibility for any harm caused by you neglecting your responsibilities as listed above. Participation in the community membership and its practices is at your own risk. We cannot guarantee any specific results from this membership
The practices and any modifications, contraindications or advice are for information purposes only and don’t constitute medical advice. The modifications and contraindications are not an exhaustive list and can’t be tailored to your personal needs.
This community membership is not intended to replace therapy or other professional support, but it may be used alongside.