Focus intently on a memory you want to share with God. Allow all your senses to experience this memory and let it be a window into the Holy. Explore with God the feelings that emerge. Share what you notice with a prayer partner or in your journal.

Be honest with God about your deepest and truest desire. Feel deeply what it would be like to have that desire fulfilled. Now, let go of specific outcomes and release this desire into God’s hands. Notice how the desire is now. Has it changed? Ask God to reveal to you what you need to do to catalyze this desire.

Create your own short two-part prayer that includes your favorite name or image for God and a phrase that describes your longing. Put the two pieces together. Something like, “God, hear my prayer,”  or “Your peace in me, Jesus.”   Inhale as you say one part and exhale as you say the other.

Write out your feelings in a psalm of lament, praise, petition or worship. Use your favorite psalm as a guide or create a whole new genre. You could also rewrite one of the Bible’s psalms using events or examples from your own life.

When you want to pray for someone who is in pain, see an image of them in your mind and ask the light of Christ to be in and around that person. See them illuminated with healing light.

Teresa Blythe is a spiritual director and member of First Congregational UCC of Tucson. She is author of the book 50 Ways to Pray: Practices from Many Traditions and Times (Abingdon Press). Visit her website on spiritual direction at www.teresablythe.net.