Even the prayers you say each morning, each night, or before each meal can become so monotonous that you find yourself practically humming them, like a child’s nursery rhyme. Before very long, the words cease to have meaning to you, and are simply sounds you make at that time of day or night. It is true that repeating sacred words can be a comfort to the spirit, but those words must find intensity in you before they can soothe you. In City Aphorisms, author Mason Cooley says, “Repetition comforts me for a time, then closes in.”

If your prayers have become so regimented, so tedious, that you hardly realize you are speaking to a deity anymore; if they seem to be closing in on you as you recite them, read on. I will teach you how to restore the spirit in your spirituality with a simple mechanism.

Repetition

There is an old adage that says "repetition is the mother of retention", and, indeed, repetition or rote, is an established tool for teaching, still used in schools today as well as in business and child rearing. Also, repetition is used to create emphasis – the more often a thing is said, the more important it appears to be. So, repetition has its benefits, that goes without saying. What I’m referring to is the droning of words to the point of numbness, where words become only sounds, and have no more meanings.

Ask any elementary school child in the early grades to recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag for you, and you will see that for the most part, they are simply imitating sounds, creating non-words that sound like the words they replace. The child probably has no idea what that particular word or sound is supposed to mean, but they have repeated it over and over, in their efforts to commit it to memory. The maxim, “practice makes perfect” is in error. In truth, only “perfect practice makes perfect”.

So, how are you to escape the monotony of wordless sounds? How can you bring true spirit back into the oft-repeated chants and incantations of your worship? Through personalization and empathy.

Personalization

Begin with a prayer or psalm you’ve uttered countless times. You will effectively parse the words of that prayer, in a different manner than you might have learned in high school English class. Bring to mind the first time you recall having spoken those words,  what the situation was and where you were. If helpful, also recall who you were with. Remember what you thought the words meant the first time you heard them or read them. This isn’t necessary for each and every word of the prayer, but the nouns are important. Find a personal memory for the important nouns of the piece, words like Mother, Father, Heaven, and Hereafter. Some of the other words can be quite telling as well, words like Blessing, Sacred, and Forever.

The next stage of personalization involves your own memories. Let the word Mother evoke the concept of motherhood in your mind. Remind yourself of what you believe is a Father, Heaven or Hereafter. These memories must come from your own experience, and only your own. You cannot personalize your spirituality with someone else’s memories or thoughts. Once you have attached personal memories to each of the important words of the piece, you are ready to move to the final stage – Empathizing.

Empathy

Empathy is described as the capability to share your feelings or to understand another's emotion and feelings. The simplest form of empathy that most people can easily encounter is that of feeding a baby with a spoon. You will open your own mouth as the spoon approaches the baby’s mouth, an empathic gesture on your part.

What does this have to do with spirit? Your spirituality, if lagging, requires an input of feelings to jump-start it once more. Go back to the personalization exercises, and where you encountered the word Mother, allow yourself to feel your perception of ideal motherhood. Do the same for the other words in the exercise. It isn’t enough to know what memories these words evoke, you must bring to the forefront the feelings those words have in you. By doing this, you are awakening your spirit.

Now that you’ve attached memory and feelings to the words of your worship, begin again to voice the prayer. Allow yourself the time to encounter the attachments you’ve created within the words, and don’t be surprised to find that your spirit seems to be brand new, embracing the prayer in a way it probably hasn’t for a long time.

Allowing yourself to feel the meaning behind the words broadens your vision of your own spirit, and expands your spirituality. Giving yourself the opportunity to discover what each word offers you gives energy to your worship, invests and empowers your spirituality.

Patricia Della-Piana is a spiritual poet, and the author of The Goddess Book of Psalms.