It can be so hard to actually daven. Both for people who daven at their set shtender in shul, and for people who daven at their set corner at home. Why is it so hard to truly talk to Hashem? The neshama naturally wants to connect with its source, so what gets in the way?
All the reasons that get in your head, preventing you from speaking to Hashem, are illusions. In reality, it doesn’t matter what you did, what you think, how you view yourself — once you talk to Hashem from your heart, you’re in a totally different space. Who you are before you pray is completely different than who you are after you pray. Prayer is a transformative mechanism.
In fact, many people believe that they are stuck under a certain ‘mazal.’ Or they look at their path in life as the path they’re going to be trodding on for the rest of their life. Not so. Even though there are opinions that say mazal does apply to Yisrael, mazal doesn’t have the final say. It’s only there to enable your tafkid. But once a Yid davens, they totally transform themselves. And the mazal that applied to them before they davened, no longer applies to this new, different being.
So whatever it is that’s getting in your way, pray yourself a new pathway out of it.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 93.
