Prayer does not look or sound the same to everyone. Prayer can be as inventive and varied as there are people who pray. While folding your hands, closing your eyes, and bowing your head might work for some people, there are so many more ways to participate in prayer.
Get Physical: Try praying in a different way by manipulating your body differently. Instead of folding your hands, try praying with open hands and palms facing upward; try holding something like a stone or stuffed animal in your hands; try lying down or dancing or running while you pray; experiment with water and run your hands through a basin of warm water, or cold water, or even your hair, as you remember your Baptism in prayer. Get creative— do something different with your body while you pray.
Get Outside Of Your Head: Praying is not about being good with words, or keeping a certain pace, or making the prayer beautiful: prayer is simply about being with God and listening for God’ s call on your life. There is nothing off-limits when it comes to what you can pray about. If you find yourself enjoying a sunset or work of art, give thanks to God in prayer; if you find yourself stressed at work or school, take a moment to pray; if you are unsure about the future, take some time to pray. Your prayer does not have to be planned, it does not have to follow a certain structure or cover certain topics— your prayer just needs to be honest and genuine.
Get Exploring: Sometimes picking a certain time or place can create the right atmosphere for beginning prayer; and, sometimes, that can make prayer unsurprising and more stale than prayerful. If you find yourself in this rut, pick a new place to go for prayer; pick a new time to pray; pick a new person or group of people with whom you might pray. Get out into the world and pray in God’ s creation where you’ ve never prayed before. Sometimes, this can be a fun activity, like if you and your family decide you want to go on a hike and pray at the summit of a hill. Prayer then becomes a destination.