Palms Up, Palms Down Practice

This ancient way of prayer begins by taking a deep breath and extending your hands before you, palms upward. Ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate everything that is weighing down your heart and mind. As illumination comes, allow these cares and concerns to drop into your hands. Give yourself several moment to fully acknowledge what each of these weights are; you might even be surprised by a few of them.

Now recognize that the God of love, the one who holds you in existence every moment of your life, longs for you to release these weights into his tender care. Envision a member of the Trinity standing before you with his hands also outstretched. Then, turn your palms downward, allowing the weights in your own hands to slip into his. Repeat this until your hands are empty. Notice your breathing and envision every exhaled breath as a further release of the weights in your life. You may notice this release in other parts of your body as well.

When you feel finished with the palms down part of the prayer, turn your now empty hands upward once more, as a symbol of your desire to receive from God. Stay in this open posture with a yielded, expectant heart, waiting for whatever God has for you in this moment. With every inhale, receive the fullness of life that comes form God: peace, forgiveness, “enough-ness”, direction, healing … whatever his gift is for you in this moment.

Recognize that you don’t have to make anything happen in this practice. You don’t even have to feel anything. In this exercise, your only task is to release your “weights” and then accept whatever the Lord has for you, the Father of good gifts (James 1:17).

The physical motion of rotating your palms up then down, will become a powerful prompt for your spirit to let go of the cares/concerns that burden your mind and heart. The final palms up motion will serve to remind you that God, as the source of life and love, is where you can go to be filled. After a time, the simple motion of palms up, palms down will bring the gift of peace and centeredness.

(The practice of palms up, palms down is adapted from Richard Foster’s book Celebration of Discipline.)