What are the three types of prayers that can help through challenging times? Find in the interview below of Anne Lamott author of
"HELP, THANKS AND WOW."
and other 26 books.
Simulcasted on 29 June 2014.
Full-Episode-Oprah-and-Anne-Lamott-Video
Comment and share the lifeskills from these episode
Lifeskills
Three essential prayers are:
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Anne Lamott, the New York Times best-selling author of Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers, Operating Instructions and Bird by Bird,
joins Oprah at her home in Hawaii to talk about the three types of
prayer that can help anyone through challenging times. Anne introduces
her latest book, Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair,
a funny and profoundly moving meditation on the search for meaning and
how we can make the wounded parts of ourselves whole again, stitch by
stitch. Plus, she opens up about her recovery from addiction and her
ongoing commitment to appreciate the sacred in everyday life.
Transcript of the episode:
Transcript of the episode:
Three essential prayers:
"Anne Lammot was born in 1944. The dad turned away from God except for Ann at 8 yrs she began to pray believing someone was listening.
Most teachers come form ethists parents as she, and her mum was from Liverpool. Her parents were active ethists but not egnostic ethists. They worshipped in monks temple believing in intellectuality. They were raised to have faith in music, books and nature. (wonder how many of us do this unconsciously) She was bright but kids teased her for her hair. She fought back by making jokes. At 18 she turned to alcohol. At 19 she began coccaine. As she didnt want to feel her feelings. She was bright and shy and was bullied and could not breath. She was sad and when she drunk she didnt feel any of her pain. Instead she felt pretty. She was a desparate people pleaser. She was raised to believe to do better and better, do anything and bring it home. When she knew it was an inside job, within her, she started praying and got sobber.
In her book she came with the three essential prayers. How?
At 32 she got sobber and converted into Christianity. She was let to be and she was allowed to be. Her mum died and she turned again to drugs. One sunday she was driven in by gospel music and she felt like God had picked her up and she needed it most.
Her father died of brain cancer and she found herself back to acohol and coccaine.
When she got sobber people told her it was a miracle and she went "thank you thank you" followed by wow. Prayer is taking chances aginst all odd.
She published her first book at 26 and has written taboo books It is easy to thank God when things are going right. But much of time it is harder than we like. It was easy for her to see God when thinks are fine but when things are wrong it shakes off one. But now whe believes one can now speak to God anywhere. Rage cna also be prayer. When things come from the depth of our heard its prayer. Conventional prayers are not important as we know so little yet think we know soo much. Phil 4.27 rejoice in God is her favourite quote. whatever hapens rejoice in the Lord. Our father's prayer - she find it hard. omnipience is the position and only love energy can be and what one is made of. It can be made, destroyed and can be part of something very huge.
How to craft the spritual practice even if you have never prayed.
People confuse prayer with wishes. Prayer is dialogue with God. It is not petition - can i have I want. The difference is... You wish certain things but we live in the hope but not in the hope that love is true and goodness is true and that darkness turned into lightness. We live in the hope that this is true. Hope is truth and life and spiritual Life will knowck you down but hope will lift you up. have a strong surface
When bad things hapen wher eis God? He is not the one who causes the evil. He is in the healing the crying that cleanse us. Prayer is surrender. Life is a phenomenal miracle. When people do wrong to you stop and talk to God and say Thank you because you know there is a rainbow and no one can take it form you and you will come out on the other side strong. For his tender mercies and letting you pass thorugh the other way. Remember to thank God.
What is your personal prayer?
Whatt makes you say Wow - She wakes up in the morning and say Wow life is phenominal.
In India - she was afraid of flying but she consoled herself it was time to prayer and surrender. Indias culture is about living spiritual where they dont separate life from the spirit. She was blown and loved India when she say one billion people in prayer. People live and exibit spirituality and it changes you. There is a level of contentment and harmony and everyone cares about the other person.
I do not know much about God and prayer, but I
have come to believe, over the past twenty-five years, that there's
something to be said about keeping prayer simple.
Help. Thanks. Wow.
You may in fact be wondering what I even mean when I use the word "prayer." It's certainly not what TV Christians mean. It's not for display purposes, like plastic sushi or neon. Prayer is private, even when we pray with others. It is communication from the heart to that which surpasses understanding. Let's say it is communication from one's heart to God. Or if that is too triggering or ludicrous a concept for you, to the Good, the force that is beyond our comprehension but that in our pain or supplication or relief we don't need to define or have proof of or any established contact with. Let's say it is what the Greeks called the Really Real, what lies within us, beyond the scrim of our values, positions, convictions, and wounds. Or let's say it is a cry from deep within to Life or Love, with capital L's.
Nothing could matter less than what we call this force. I know some ironic believers who call God Howard, as in "Our Father, who art in Heaven, Howard be thy name." I called God Phil for a long time, after a Mexican bracelet maker promised to write "Phil 4:4–7" on my bracelet, Philippians 4:4–7 being my favorite passage of Scripture, but got only as far as "Phil" before having to dismantle his booth. Phil is a great name for God.
My friend Robyn calls God "the Grandmothers." The Deteriorata, a parody of the Desiderata, counsels us, "Therefore, make peace with your god, / Whatever you conceive him to be— / Hairy thunderer, or cosmic muffin."
Let's not get bogged down on whom or what we pray to. Let's just say prayer is communication from our hearts to the great mystery, or Goodness, or Howard; to the animating energy of love we are sometimes bold enough to believe in; to something unimaginably big, and not us. We could call this force Not Me, and Not Preachers Onstage with a Choir of 800. Or for convenience we could just say "God."
Some of you were taught to pray at bedtime with your parents, and when I spent the night at your houses, I heard all of you saying these terrifying words: "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake ... "
Wait, what? What did you say? I could die in my sleep? I'm only seven years old ...
"I pray the Lord my soul to take."
That so, so did not work for me, especially in the dark in a strange home. Don't be taking my soul. You leave my soul right here, in my fifty-pound body. Help.
Sometimes the first time we pray, we cry out in the deepest desperation, "God help me." This is a great prayer, as we are then at our absolutely most degraded and isolated, which means we are nice and juicy with the consequences of our best thinking and are thus possibly teachable.
Or I might be in one of my dangerously good moods and say casually: "Hey, hi, Person. Me again. The princess. Thank you for my sobriety, my grandson, my flowering pear tree."
Or you might shout at the top of your lungs or whisper into your sleeve, "I hate you, God." That is a prayer, too, because it is real, it is truth, and maybe it is the first sincere thought you've had in months.
Some of us have cavernous vibrations inside us when we communicate with God. Others are more rational and less messy in our spiritual sense of reality, in our petitions and gratitude and expressions of pain or anger or desolation or praise. Prayer means that, in some unique way, we believe we're invited into a relationship with someone who hears us when we speak in silence.
We can pray for things ("Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes-Benz"). We can pray for people ("Please heal Martin's cancer." "Please help me not be such an asshole"). We may pray for things that would destroy us; as Teresa of Avila said, "More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones." We can pray for a shot at having a life in which we are present and awake and paying attention and being kind to ourselves. We can pray, "Hello? Is there anyone there?" We can pray, "Am I too far gone, or can you help me get out of my isolated self obsession?" We can say anything to God. It's all prayer.
From Help, Thanks, Wow by Anne Lamott. Copyright 2012 by Anne Lamott. Excerpted by permission of Riverhead Books."
Her father died of brain cancer and she found herself back to acohol and coccaine.
When she got sobber people told her it was a miracle and she went "thank you thank you" followed by wow. Prayer is taking chances aginst all odd.
She published her first book at 26 and has written taboo books It is easy to thank God when things are going right. But much of time it is harder than we like. It was easy for her to see God when thinks are fine but when things are wrong it shakes off one. But now whe believes one can now speak to God anywhere. Rage cna also be prayer. When things come from the depth of our heard its prayer. Conventional prayers are not important as we know so little yet think we know soo much. Phil 4.27 rejoice in God is her favourite quote. whatever hapens rejoice in the Lord. Our father's prayer - she find it hard. omnipience is the position and only love energy can be and what one is made of. It can be made, destroyed and can be part of something very huge.
How to craft the spritual practice even if you have never prayed.
People confuse prayer with wishes. Prayer is dialogue with God. It is not petition - can i have I want. The difference is... You wish certain things but we live in the hope but not in the hope that love is true and goodness is true and that darkness turned into lightness. We live in the hope that this is true. Hope is truth and life and spiritual Life will knowck you down but hope will lift you up. have a strong surface
When bad things hapen wher eis God? He is not the one who causes the evil. He is in the healing the crying that cleanse us. Prayer is surrender. Life is a phenomenal miracle. When people do wrong to you stop and talk to God and say Thank you because you know there is a rainbow and no one can take it form you and you will come out on the other side strong. For his tender mercies and letting you pass thorugh the other way. Remember to thank God.
What is your personal prayer?
Whatt makes you say Wow - She wakes up in the morning and say Wow life is phenominal.
In India - she was afraid of flying but she consoled herself it was time to prayer and surrender. Indias culture is about living spiritual where they dont separate life from the spirit. She was blown and loved India when she say one billion people in prayer. People live and exibit spirituality and it changes you. There is a level of contentment and harmony and everyone cares about the other person.
Anne Lamott's -Three Simple Prayers
Author Anne
Lamott says there are three simple prayers that can get you through the
good, bad and even the ordinary aspects of daily life. Read on to find
out what they are in this excerpt from her book, Help Thanks Wow.
 |
Help. Thanks. Wow.
You may in fact be wondering what I even mean when I use the word "prayer." It's certainly not what TV Christians mean. It's not for display purposes, like plastic sushi or neon. Prayer is private, even when we pray with others. It is communication from the heart to that which surpasses understanding. Let's say it is communication from one's heart to God. Or if that is too triggering or ludicrous a concept for you, to the Good, the force that is beyond our comprehension but that in our pain or supplication or relief we don't need to define or have proof of or any established contact with. Let's say it is what the Greeks called the Really Real, what lies within us, beyond the scrim of our values, positions, convictions, and wounds. Or let's say it is a cry from deep within to Life or Love, with capital L's.
Nothing could matter less than what we call this force. I know some ironic believers who call God Howard, as in "Our Father, who art in Heaven, Howard be thy name." I called God Phil for a long time, after a Mexican bracelet maker promised to write "Phil 4:4–7" on my bracelet, Philippians 4:4–7 being my favorite passage of Scripture, but got only as far as "Phil" before having to dismantle his booth. Phil is a great name for God.
My friend Robyn calls God "the Grandmothers." The Deteriorata, a parody of the Desiderata, counsels us, "Therefore, make peace with your god, / Whatever you conceive him to be— / Hairy thunderer, or cosmic muffin."
Let's not get bogged down on whom or what we pray to. Let's just say prayer is communication from our hearts to the great mystery, or Goodness, or Howard; to the animating energy of love we are sometimes bold enough to believe in; to something unimaginably big, and not us. We could call this force Not Me, and Not Preachers Onstage with a Choir of 800. Or for convenience we could just say "God."
Some of you were taught to pray at bedtime with your parents, and when I spent the night at your houses, I heard all of you saying these terrifying words: "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake ... "
Wait, what? What did you say? I could die in my sleep? I'm only seven years old ...
"I pray the Lord my soul to take."
That so, so did not work for me, especially in the dark in a strange home. Don't be taking my soul. You leave my soul right here, in my fifty-pound body. Help.
Sometimes the first time we pray, we cry out in the deepest desperation, "God help me." This is a great prayer, as we are then at our absolutely most degraded and isolated, which means we are nice and juicy with the consequences of our best thinking and are thus possibly teachable.
Or I might be in one of my dangerously good moods and say casually: "Hey, hi, Person. Me again. The princess. Thank you for my sobriety, my grandson, my flowering pear tree."
Or you might shout at the top of your lungs or whisper into your sleeve, "I hate you, God." That is a prayer, too, because it is real, it is truth, and maybe it is the first sincere thought you've had in months.
Some of us have cavernous vibrations inside us when we communicate with God. Others are more rational and less messy in our spiritual sense of reality, in our petitions and gratitude and expressions of pain or anger or desolation or praise. Prayer means that, in some unique way, we believe we're invited into a relationship with someone who hears us when we speak in silence.
We can pray for things ("Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes-Benz"). We can pray for people ("Please heal Martin's cancer." "Please help me not be such an asshole"). We may pray for things that would destroy us; as Teresa of Avila said, "More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones." We can pray for a shot at having a life in which we are present and awake and paying attention and being kind to ourselves. We can pray, "Hello? Is there anyone there?" We can pray, "Am I too far gone, or can you help me get out of my isolated self obsession?" We can say anything to God. It's all prayer.
From Help, Thanks, Wow by Anne Lamott. Copyright 2012 by Anne Lamott. Excerpted by permission of Riverhead Books."