Reducing Anxiety Through Contemplative Prayer: 3 Essential Must-Read Books to Begin Your Journey.

In the relentless whirlwind of our modern lives, where stress, anxiety, anger, and the demands of everyday existence can take a toll on our well-being, finding moments of solace and inner peace becomes an essential pursuit. The practice of contemplative prayer, perhaps most well-known as “the Christian version of mindfulness”, emerges as a potent tool for nurturing spiritual growth and improving mental health.

Contemplative prayer provides a path to both spiritual awakening and mental well-being, and the benefits of mindfulness practices have been demonstrated again and again in non-religious clinical research trials.

It is a transformative practice that invites individuals to embark on a sacred journey of self-discovery, inner stillness, and profound connection with the divine in all aspects of their lives.

Recognizing the intricate relationship between spirituality and mental health, this article gives the three resources that I have found most helpful in my own spiritual and mental health journey. These are the three books on contemplative prayer that I continue to return to time and time again.

In this blog, I present a curated selection of the best books on contemplative prayer—a collection carefully crafted to nurture not only our spiritual understanding but also our mental and emotional well-being. These books serve as beacons of wisdom, guiding us on a transformative journey toward serenity and self-discovery.

Whether you are seeking solace amidst the chaos, seeking relief from anxiety, anger, and stress, or simply yearning to deepen your spiritual connection, these introductory books on contemplative prayer provide invaluable guidance. By embracing their teachings, we embark on a sacred voyage that not only enriches our spirituality but also nourishes our mental well-being, fostering resilience, self-compassion, and a sense of inner calm.

Here are the 3 Essential Must-Read Books to Begin Your Quest in Contemplative Prayer:

A Sunlit Absence by Martin Laird

Martin Laird offers a great contemporary introduction to centering prayer. Martin is thoroughly located in the present, and yet is quick to pull from and quote earlier Christians whose wisdom can prove helpful today.

The introduction of the book makes it clear that centering prayer helps us discover that God isn’t found somewhere else or beyond us, but in fact is found within us.

Laird points out in accessible and easy-to-read language that our separation from God is in some senses an illusion of our distracted and chattering consciousness. Laird writes, “One of the great mysteries of the contemplative path is the discovery that, when the veils of separation drop, we see that the God we have been seeking has already found us, knows us, and sustains us in being from all eternity”(p. 3).

One of the great contributions to the book is Laird’s separation of contemplative practice into three distinct phases, which readers can recognize themselves in. First, Laird writes, practitioners of contemplative prayer see by “torchlight”: our “inner chatter” is illuminated before us and we recognize its pervasiveness in our lives. Second, we see by “moonlight”: the chatter begins to fade, but we recognize there is something else just beyond where we’re at. A dullness/greyness can settle in. Third, a “sunrise in the heart”: we become aware and attuned to the present.

If you wish to experience this “sunrise in the heart”, then Laird’s book is a great resource and companion to have. It is, in fact, my go-to contemplation resource with young adults and college students.

2. Intimacy with God by Thomas Keating

It has been seven years since I first read this book, and the rich images and metaphors have stuck with me all this time. Furthermore, I find myself drawing instinctually more from this book than any other when I share about contemplative prayer with others, which speaks it’s incredible quality as a resource and guide.

Keating writes about how the spiritual journey is about deepening one’s trust in God. This trust propels us forward in our journey and allows for the healing of our wounds. Keating writes, “…it is trust that guides the intimate refashioning of our being, the transformation of our pain, woundedness, and unconscious motivation into the person that God intended us to be”(p. 1).

For Keating, centering prayer is a kind of transference, to use a counseling term, with God.

During the practice, God is not just present, but active. God reflects back to us “the acceptance and affirmation that our parents may have knowingly or unknowingly denied us in early childhood because of their own wounds from early life”(p. 21). Our pent up and stored negative emotions are then slowly released through our practice, freeing us of their presence and the fears, anxieties, inhibitions, ego that they create.

Keating writes, “the actual work of Centering Prayer is consenting to God’s presence and in doing so letting go of the present moment with its psychological content”(p. 26).

The self for Keating is made of concentric circles, with the ordinary level of awareness at the outside, then spiritual awareness, the true self, and finally the center of divine presence. Centering prayer helps to turn our intention towards this center of divine presence. The false self represses the true self and is the result of our woundedness, where we repress or try to compensate for emotional trauma and pain. When we are dominated by external events instead of acting with freedom, we are being dominated acting out of our false self. However, centering prayer helps us to let go of the wounds of the false self, and “we interact better than before because we are not defending ourselves from people or circumstances, but living reality as it unfolds”(p. 36).

Instead of seeing God as Friend, Keating suggests seeing God as Divine Therapist, and centering prayer is your session of Divine Therapy (again, a metaphor I would be inclined to gravitate towards). It acknowledges that we come to our therapy sessions with a host of problems, but that God is more than friend – also a therapist who can help us process if we are willing to begin the therapy process.

Therapy is a four stage process – 1) introduction of sacred word, 2) rest, 3) the unloading of the unconscious 4) evacuation – where primitive thoughts/emotions are evacuated from ourselves and lose their stored energy. We move backward through time, unpacking deeper and deeper stored emotional trauma from life. As we go through the process, it may actually prove more difficult rather than less, because we are unpacking more repressed, deeply held trauma.

As a therapists, the use of counseling imagery and metaphors, and the idea that centering prayer can indeed heal us of our stored trauma and earlier life drama has been appealing, and is one that I continue to be reminded of to this day.

3. The Cloud of Unknowing – Anonymous

The Cloud of Unknowing is one of, if not the original book on centering prayer. For that reason, it is definitely essential reading on the topic.

However, I have to be honest that it was a bit much for me to make sense of when I first encountered it.

One of the great moves that the author makes to make it clear to readers that we don’t come to know God through knowledge, or our intellect or rationality or thinking, but instead by a kind of profound openness: “a naked intent toward God in the depths of your being”.

It has taken us hundreds of years to only recently begin to grasp the truth that the author is sharing that life is found not in our rationality, but in an openness to being in our bodies as contemporary psychologists and counselors are discovering.

Conclusion

As we traverse the realms of contemplative prayer and its profound impact on spiritual and mental well-being, we cannot overlook the significant role it plays in addressing the challenges of anxiety and mental health in our lives.

These recommended books have been invaluable resources to me, and I hope they guide you toward a place of inner calm, self-compassion, and renewed strength, as they have me.

Within the gentle embrace of silence, contemplative prayer becomes a refuge where anxiety dissipates, and the mind finds serenity, wholeness, and trust. Through intentional stillness and introspection, we learn to detach from the incessant worries, allowing space for healing and the emergence of profound peace.

The wisdom contained within these books merges ancient spiritual teachings with contemporary insights, offering practical tools and techniques that empower us to navigate the complexities of anxiety and mental health challenges. By engaging with these transformative practices, we discover the innate resilience of our spirits and the capacity for self-healing.

Hi, I’m Travis.

My clients describe me as calm, compassionate, and curious…

You have these qualities inside you at your core too. You just need a little help uncovering them.

If you’re dominated by anger, anxiety, shame, or self-criticism, we can help you re-connect with who you really are: confident, calm, courageous, compassionate, and connected to yourself and others.