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Over the next several hours, the book became an emotional support object, helping me remain calm.
Detail of 15th-century fresco (Death of the Virgin) by Filippo Lippi in the Santa Maria Assunta Cathedral in Spoleto (Perugia Province). T
Smith defines prayer as an active agreement made between your soul and the divine.
The divine can be many things, she says.
Prayer can serve as an act of solidarity with ourselves, our community, and our earth.
An illustration from the book by Chelsea Granger.
She writes that prayer plants the seeds of change.
Co-creation is the progression of thinking to feeling to knowing to being.
Vogue: Tell me about your professional background and what led you to write this book.
An illustration from the book by Chelsea Granger.
Its a very subtle and pretty esoteric approach to healing, working with flowers.
I blend that with somatic work, a modality calledFocusing, which is asomaticintegration technique.
During the pandemic, I started to lean into my spiritual and healing practices more deeply.
Author Heidi Smith.
I had always had a relationship with prayer, but I had never examined prayer as its own thing.
And then I [realized] there were no books on prayer that were cross-cultural and secular.
I started praying more intentionally and more ritualistically, and talking to my clients about it.
And so it kind of evolved into a specific kind of syncretic methodology.
Do you have clients who are resistant to prayer?
For the most part, the people who are drawn to my work are drawn to my approach.
Of course, victimization is a very real thing, but it can also be a mindset.
You utilizesomatic therapywith your clients as well.
How is somatic therapy and prayer linked in your practice?
I utilize a modality called focusing.
And its likeparts work, likeinternal family systems.
We all have these different parts that have their own memories.
They have their own consciousness.
Its frequently where well encounter our inner children.
I work with complex-trauma survivors.
A negative view of the self and a negative worldview are two common traits of complex-trauma survivors.
I have personal experience with that as well.
Theres no shortage of things to feel negative, overwhelmed, despairing about.
One place to start is how thats presenting in your life.
When are you noticing the negative thoughts?
Is there a trigger?
Is it a time of day?
Is it a certain event?
And then starting to get curious with where is that connected in my body?
An illustration from the book by Chelsea Granger.
Not all trauma is in the past tense.
Sometimes its presently occurring.
And I think its important to note that its not always possible to override your biology with language.
I also think that prayer doesnt need to be something necessarily that were reaching for when things are catastrophic.
You specifically titled this bookUncommon Prayer, so how do you make prayer more accessible?
I am seeking to reframe prayer as very accessible.
Its a practice that belongs to all of us, and theres no universal definition of prayer.
What is the difference between intention, prayer, and mantra?
Can one be substituted for the other if one resonates more with someone?
We could get into a very philosophical semantic debate about it.
But just to simplify, Im saying that they are interchangeable.
Prayers can be more of an act of practice.
Theres a thin line between honoring other ancestral traditions and cultural appropriation.
How do we know when that line has been crossed?
Just do your research.
Where does this tradition come from?
What is their cultural history?
And so you should probably be thinking about your own spiritual work, not just taking from someone.
Consider the origin of practices like sage and palo santo.
Everybody is burning those now, but theyve been overharvested and theyre being used outside of their sacred purpose.
So to some people, thats really harmful.
How do we know when our own cup is filled?
It is a practice for a lot of people because it feels different.
It might even feel wrong.
There might be feelings of guilt.
Sometimes people have a difficult time even naming their needs or being able to articulate them.
So the practice of filling ones cup can really be a deeper invitation that takes time.
You say in the book that deep listening is a prayer in and of itself.
Can you explain that further?
And so the idea of going inward and listening on that level was pretty revolutionary to me.
Were very focused on our five senses.
This is the information age, this is the attention economy.
So were constantly being pulled in this other direction.
Do you recommend taking social media breaks?
Yes, social media is like taking an Ativan.
Were in a difficult timewhat is it that you hope people get out of your book?
As the old world is breaking down, prayer is an accessible tool for all of us.
It is available to help us create possibilities and solutions.
And it can be really simple.
It doesnt have to be this thing that takes up all your time.
You dont have to buy a bunch of stuff.
Its just a shift in perception.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and concision.
