Revolutionary Kavanah Tactic

Have a small, inconspicuous pencil (with an eraser) in your pocket when you daven. Let’s say you just started shemoneh esrei, and all of a sudden you find yourself at r’faeinu. This might sound familiar to some of you. I always have this problem. With the pointy end of your pencil, write a star or an x next to all the brachos you totally just auto-piloted over. Do this whenever you realize you lost concentration again. The next time you daven, you can erase the stars/x’es at certain brachos (or whatever symbol you feel comfortable with) if you have better kavanah there (which you WILL, for at least some of them, because that symbol will be staring at you, reminding you of your previous lack of kavanah). You also have to write more stars or x’es in places where you auto-piloted over this time around. The more you do this, the less writing and erasing you’ll be doing, because you will have improved your kavanah drastically.

I know, I know – that guy sitting next to you and the guy behind you and the guy in the corner will be staring at you like you fell of your rocker, writing in your siddur as if you’re writing a to-do list. But you don’t have to be self-conscious so much. Maybe they’re not looking at you. Maybe they are, but they shouldn’t, because they’re supposed to be davening, not spying. Maybe you should suggest this idea to them.

If this tactic catches on, it can be a worldwide sensation, but really it’s a personal thing, between you and Hashem. It will only work if you’re really interested in improving. You might do it once, and then stop. This will have achieved practically nothing .Do yourself a favor, and stick to this strategy.

This battle-plan really works. I’m so much happier with my davening now. I hope everyone else can benefit from this maneuver. I’m open to more suggestions for tweaking.

This is for non-Shabbos and non-Yom-Tov use ONLY.