‘Pray then in this way:

Our Father in heaven,

   hallowed be your name.

   Your kingdom come.

   Your will be done,

     on earth as it is in heaven.

   Give us this day our daily bread.

   And forgive us our debts,

     as we also have forgiven our debtors.

   And do not bring us to the time of trial,

     but rescue us from the evil one. (Mathew 6:9-13)

It is said it takes 12 weeks (which will be August 12.) to do something in order to create a habit that is changing a new way of doing something. Perhaps it is not so much the 12 weeks that forms the habit, it is the twelve weeks that make it possible to be aware of the benefits. This habit forming concept can be applied to the habit of adding daily prayer to the mindful minute we talked about earlier this year, with the scripture. This line, “Give is this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11), is within the prayer itself offering a reminder of that daily routine. If we add prayer to our mindfulness, it can add a different action or an awareness beyond being stationary and solo action. Our prayers can move the mindfulness into action when we include God through prayer and then onward if we also begin praying for others.

Though during a conversation someone mentioned something that crossed their path recently that said if we do something like eat healthy all week, then have a meal of unhealthy foods, not to do it two times in a row. For example if all of a sudden you find yourself eating a gooey cheesy pizza after a week of veggies, to wake up eating muesli with yogurt instead of eating a pound of bacon. The concept they offered was that yeah, we are human and we are not perfect. This connects into the lines that is asking for forgiveness, from others and for ourselves. That sometimes it the words users are sins and also trespasses, in place of debtors. Whichever is used, that it is a good practice to remember ourselves in that forgiveness, to let go of whatever and move on. That if we get caught by the one time we forgot, we have forgotten to forgive ourselves.

Earlier this year we were setting aside a minute a day, preferably at the beginning of the day to mindfully pay attention to our breath. It is okay if you will use this as a gentle reminder to return to focused and mindful breathing or this is news to you welcome. If we focus on our breath for a minute, followed with reciting the Lord’s Prayer or maybe some other similar prayer, we can begin to deepen our connection with God. This is done through bringing our awareness, inside and outside of breath, while also having an action with a prayer or maybe scripture. Think of the use of breath as mindfully sending out prayers throughout the day.