How should you contend with intrusive thoughts that enter your mind uninvited, confuse you, and don’t leave you alone?
Does it make a difference if these thoughts arise during prayer, as opposed to at any other random time?
When you pray, you connect yourself with a power greater than yourself - G-d! Annoyingly, and perhaps surprisingly, it is specifically at this time that most people struggle with invasive, distracting thoughts.
A common mistake that many people make is that they think foreign thoughts invalidate their prayers and that if they had prayed properly, these thoughts wouldn’t arise.
That would be true, if we had only one soul…
But we have two souls!
And each one wants to control the one brain you have, and your entire body.
Each soul wants the mind to be occupied with just the thoughts that she approves of.
The animal soul bombards you with unwanted thoughts especially when you are praying, and even more specifically, when you are praying _intently_! That’s when she releases her artillery all at once because she knows she is fighting a battle that will determine the outcome of the entire day!
What can you do about this?
Picture your body like a car that has two drivers.
Each driver is trying to steer the wheel in the direction he wants to go.
When you pray, the wheel is in the hand of the G-dly soul who is striving to connect with G-d.
The other driver is dozing off but she doesn’t want to be helpless like that so she passive-aggressively makes background noise, turns on the radio, starts singing songs, babbles about nonsense - all in order to distract the driver and attempt to grab the steering wheel.
How do you drive safely with disturbances like this?
A good driver knows:
Keep your eyes on the road. Stay focused on your goal.
Ignore the background noise.
When you realize that it’s not _you_ who is conflicted and unable to decide if you want to focus on your prayers or on something else. You are not like a single driver of a car who can’t decide which destination he wants to reach.
Instead, it’s the other driver, the animal soul, who is interfering!
Now you know exactly what you need to do in order to achieve your objective.
Stop paying attention to the distraction!
Imagine that it’s a clown performing silly tricks and making funny faces…
Or your noisy neighbor shouting out the window to a passerby…
Or the radio blasting from next door…
They’re noisy and distracting, but they have nothing to do with you. Continue moving forward by ignoring the distractions.
You can’t stop the thoughts. They are like a radio that cannot be turned off. All you can do is change the station.
Any time intrusive thoughts arise - not only during prayers - the solution is the same:
_Ignore them…_ Focus your mind on something that _you_ want to think about.
Why?
Because engaging with the thought creates a connection with it.
_*Someone who wrestles with a filthy person, becomes filthy, too!*_
Therefore, make as if you didn’t notice and didn’t hear the intrusive thought.
If, after you’ve tried to do this, the thought refuses to fade, reach for outside help! Raise your eyes to the heavens and request assistance for overcoming this struggle.
If you can’t speak because you are in the middle of a section of prayers where talking is forbidden, at least direct your thoughts to G_d, and in your mind, beg for relief. He, in His great mercy, will certainly listen and respond.
In Conclusion:
Intrusive thoughts are really intrusive. They are not _you_, being split into two and being pulled in two opposite directions. Instead, it’s an attempt by the animal soul to wrestle your mind and your heart back into her control, like a driver trying to grab the steering wheel from another driver.
The way to deal with intrusive thoughts is to not engage with them at all. Completely disregard them and pay no attention to them at all.
Instead, refocus and redirect your attention to your prayers.
Have a wonderful day!
