Praying the Unity Way

I looked down from the eight-foot ladder I was standing on. I could see my foreman being intentional with his steps as he walked toward me. It had happened again! This was layoff day.

As a licensed electrician working in commercial and industrial areas, when a job was coming to an end, we were accustomed to getting a layoff slip in an envelope along with our final checks. As an electrician who happened to be Black and female, these yellow slips were a common occurrence.

I could feel my sadness and disappointment. I yearned to be seen and recognized as a skilled tradeswoman.

What would I do with myself until the next job? I drove to the bank, deposited my paychecks, drove five minutes home without music, and opened the door to my home.

This time would be different.

I became very silent. So silent that I could hear the sounds of life all around me. The crickets, space between the words, space to experience the Divine as me. I realized all that I had been yearning and searching for was already within me.

Steps Toward Freedom

I walked into the house, put my tool bucket and hard hat away, proceeded to my bedroom, took off my work boots, and changed into sweatpants and a T-shirt. I looked over in the corner. I had been attending a Unity church, learning how to pray and meditate. There was the sanctuary I had set up to practice inner peace.

I sat down in a comfortable chair with a pillow for my back. I picked up my Daily Word® to start relaxing and turned to a reading that affirmed peace. Then I began the Unity five-step prayer process toward freedom as taught by cofounder Charles Fillmore.

The first step invited me to relax. This was a way to shift from the events of the day and take a journey to open my heart. I practiced this by taking a few conscious breaths, in and out. As I continued to breathe, I focused my attention on the top of my head, directing my breath there, then focused breath down through every area of my body until I reached my toes. I could feel my entire body relaxing into the nothingness of the moment.

The next step to becoming free was to concentrate. In that moment I affirmed: God is. I recognized this Presence is everywhere. It is infinite, the universal life force and the wind beneath the wings of all that is, was, and ever will be. God is.

Then, I moved into meditation. I integrated my humanness with my divine essence by affirming these words as my mantra: “God is source, flowing in, through, and as me. I feel the presence of God.”

Realizing the Truth

In the sacred container I had created, I realized. In this realization, I became very silent. So silent that I could hear the sounds of life all around me. The crickets, space between the words, space to experience the Divine as me. I realized all that I had been yearning and searching for was already within me.

As I concluded this expansive time with myself, I gave thanks. I was grateful for this new and different way of releasing the day. I was thankful to have a new way to celebrate and affirm my life.

This five-step prayer process allowed me to have peace instead of being anxious or worried about being laid off. Instead, I intuitively knew everything was going to work out, and it did! I have been able to return countless times to this prayer practice in times of despair and in times of joy.

I am the point at which all of the universe rises up to bless my space, thoughts, actions, and reactions.

This article first appeared in the Unity booklet Finding Peace Through Prayer.