How Does Prayer Right-size the Ego?

Anna Lembke says prayer is a stance of humility whether someone is a person of faith or not. It right-sizes the ego and a person's place in the universe by admitting limited control and asking for guidance, while staying in awe of how mysterious and beautiful the cosmic order is. She calls prayer the opposite of psychotherapy, which looks inward and backward. Prayer pivots outward and forward, and she treats the stance as an antidote to the times people live in now.

Doing the next right thing gives life meaning without trying to engineer a perfect future. The move is to ask what can be done today to be of service, and which choice lets a person walk through the world feeling good. She describes a morning swim when her lane had no cover and another swimmer struggled to pull a cover off a different lane. She left the water, stood on the cold pool deck, and helped. The act was small, and it stayed with her because she stepped out of workout mode so someone else could do what they needed to do.