When You Pray, Move Your Feet
A few years ago a friend shared this West African Proverb that I had never heard before:
"When you pray, move your feet."
So simple, so powerful. So incredibly true.
And so many of us – myself included – can get caught in the prayer of the wanting. I want more of this, I want more of that. Woe is me that I don’t have that thing that I want exactly when I want it. How is it that I still don't have that thing that I want? Should I check my email every 15 seconds just to see if something’s changed? You get the point...
A whole lot of sitting and waiting and wishing and praying is not going to get you there. The wanting is a great map of understanding and yes, absolutely an initial step. The praying too. But there’s a missing piece in all the wishing and hoping (and moping) - an active piece. A personal responsibility to serve as creator. To take part in generating the movement and momentum to magnetize that which you want towards you.
I love that this proverb lends balance to that desire for what we want and the remembering that we too are full participants in it's showing up in the physical world.
How to harness this proverb? Three ways to inspire you to move those feet below:
1 | Do the INNER active work
Often when I’m working towards something I want I'll recognize that missing piece in myself and I'll find a kundalini meditation practice designed to break through and expand beyond that particular issue. I'll take one of these meditations on as a practice for a number of days as a discipline and a promise to myself. As an action of what I'm working towards - the inner and the outer - but at the end of the day - the work! This is a great resource to search through and identify a meditation to match your want.
2 | Actually move
I believe this notion of moving one’s feet can also quite literally mean to just move. Go for a walk. Jump up and down. Shake the body to move stagnant or stuck energy. Dance to Ke$ha for all I care. Do your thing but move energy through you - our bodies were designed to move much more than many of us honor on a daily or even weekly basis.
3 | Move your joy Vibration
When we raise our vibration - or essentially our levels of joy and happiness, we make it easier for what we want to find us - and in turn, for us to actually recognize and receive it. What I like about teachings like those of Abraham Hicks is the encouragement to focus on what's going well instead of what's going wrong. If we're constantly focusing on what we want (and don't have) to the point of obsession, this work says think about and do something else (anything else) to put yourself in a a place of higher vibration and therefore attraction.
This could mean read something for pleasure, watching a funny tv show, listening to a podcast you love, etc. It doesn't have to have anything to do with the goal but is much more about finding a more childlike playfulness and lessening the crazy and contracted grip of control that can block us from receiving what we desire.
When we focus on the actions of feeling better and moving towards a better place - both internally and externally, it's amazing how quickly our perspective, our joy, and our ease of achievement can shift for the better. shift.
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