Breath prayer might be something worth trying. They are usually short statements and are said many times during the day. Here are a few examples…

• “O Lord, baptize me with love”
• “Gracious Master, remove my fear”
• Help me know your way O Lord
• God, help me move over to the co-pilot seat
• “There is no God but God”
• “be still and know that I am God”

Richard Foster’s book Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home is a classic and contains some of the breath prayers above. The chapter on Unceasing Prayer includes support for the idea that this doesn’t happen right away (“We do not leap into the dizzy heights of constant communion in a single bound.”); that Foster hasn’t mastered this even after lots of practice; and that a breath prayer can be unique to you and contain just a few syllables.

Maybe it’s worth trying a breath prayer today?  Set an alarm and when it goes off, say your breath prayer and then “snooze” so it goes off again, or re-set the alarm for later in the day?

Then, remember to give yourself some grace when you feel like it isn’t working.  As Foster says about unceasing prayer, after moving away from it for awhile…

“In time we can come back and try again. The question is not whether we fail again and again – that is a given; the question is whether over a period of time we are developing a practiced habit of divine fellowship.” – Richard Foster in his book Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home