Include What is Enjoyable

We shouldn't feel pressured to approach our times of prayers in the same way as others do.

I'm not a big fan of silence. This might sound a bit strange given that I'm attempting to become a modern monastic, which includes spiritual practices like silence and solitude. Don't "monks" go about their days with a lot of silence? They sure do. But it's not something I'm personally accustomed to yet. Besides, I'm not pursuing becoming a traditional monk anyway. Being a modern monastic allows me some measure of freedom to customize what my spiritual practices actually look like for my specific life.

My personality type is likely one factor for why I prefer not to be in complete silence. I have a personality type that deals quite well with noise. In fact, I find that a little bit of noise helps me concentrate better. I can often be found in noisy coffee shops typing away on a laptop. This doesn't mean that I won't come to enjoy complete silence at some point in my life. There are many things that I once thought I would never enjoy but I do now. Silence might be one of these. But for now, I always have background music playing whenever I spend time with the Lord in prayer, meditation, worship, etc. And that's totally fine. It makes the time I spend with God that much more enjoyable.

When it comes to your spiritual disciplines, consider doing things that would be enjoyable and fun for you. Because going into prayer can already be such a struggle, you might want to consider doing whatever is going to make that process a little bit easier. Complete silence just doesn't work for me (at least not yet). I just don't find it enjoyable. And so, I choose not to do that. But having music in the background actually helps me get really motivated to pray. It helps smoothen the process for me to get into prayer. I also consider it to be fun. I've realized that coming before the Lord shouldn't be a dreadful and boring experience. Instead, it should be an enjoyable and fun one. And so I intentionally include elements into my spiritual disciplines that will make it enjoyable and fun, such as having background music.

For some people, complete silence is enjoyable and fun for them. For others such as myself, it's not so much. We shouldn't feel pressured to approach our times of prayers in the same way as others do. We each need to discover what works for each of us and what will help decrease any resistance to going into prayer. Therefore, I recommend including elements that will make your time with God enjoyable and fun for you.

Although I may not enjoy complete silence right now, it doesn't necessarily mean I won't enjoy it later on in life. At some point in time, I will want to experiment with incorporating complete silence into my prayer times. I may discover one day that I like it. More so, I may discover certain spiritual benefits that come along with complete silence. But for now, I'll keep the background music turned on as I continue building the lifelong habit of coming to the Lord in prayer every single day and for ample amounts of time. For now, anything that can help make it easier to build this habit is welcomed.

Barnabas the Monastic

Servant of Christ. Husband. Dad. Modern Monastic. I have a wild ambition in life: get as close to the Lord Jesus Christ as I can while on earth. I explore and integrate ancient Christian monk wisdom in modern everyday life. Lives in Canada.