What if your restless mind isn't evidence that you're failing at prayer...

What if it's simply evidence that you're human?

There are days when sitting still feels impossible. Thoughts crowd in before you've even opened your Bible. The to-do list arrives before the amen. And somewhere underneath all that noise is a quiet ache — the feeling that everyone else seems to find God in the stillness, and you just can't get there.

I want to sit with you in that for a moment. Because I think we've been told a story about prayer that doesn't fit everyone — and it's leaving some of the most sensitive, deeply feeling women I know convinced that something is wrong with them.

There isn't. But let's talk about what's actually going on.

Your Mind Isn't Broken — It's Just Wired Differently

Neuroscience has been quietly telling us something important for years. For many people — especially those with ADHD, anxiety, or high sensitivity — the brain's prefrontal cortex, the part responsible for focus and calm, simply works differently. It's not a character flaw. It's not a spiritual problem. It's biology.

And when a brain like this tries to meet a God who is described as speaking in a still small voice... the silence can feel less like a sanctuary and less like a failure.

But here's what the contemplative prayer tradition has known for centuries: the goal of prayer was never a blank mind. The practice is not to stop thinking — it's to release the thought when you notice it, gently returning to God. Every single time. As many times as it takes. That return is the prayer.

Which means your wandering mind isn't the obstacle. The returning is the practice.

What a Scattered Mind Might Actually Be Telling You

I wonder if some of what we call distraction in prayer is actually something else entirely.

A scattered mind is not always a spiritually disordered mind. Sometimes it is a nervous system that works differently, and contemplative prayer meets that reality with gentleness rather than shame.

In my years as a Speech and Language Therapist, working alongside people navigating loss, trauma, stroke recovery, and grief, I saw again and again how the body holds what the mind can't process. The racing thoughts, the inability to settle... these are often the nervous system doing exactly what it was designed to do. Staying alert. Staying safe.

And God, I believe, meets us there. Not after we've managed to calm down. Right there in the middle of it.

Psalm 62:8 in the Living Translation says: "O my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge."

Pour out your heart. Not present a tidy, composed version of yourself. Pour it out. Mess and all.

A 5-Minute Practice That Works With Your Mind, Not Against It

This is where I want to offer you something practical. Not a formula. Just a gentle framework I call the Spirit-Led Sketch Method — Prepare, Ask, Doodle, Reflect.

Here's how 5 minutes might look:

Prepare. Take one slow breath. You don't need to manufacture peace. Just arrive. Whisper: "Here I am, Lord."

Ask. Bring one word, one ache, one question to God. Not a paragraph. One thing. It might be: peace, held, help, see me.

Doodle. Pick up a pen — not to create art, just to move. Let your hand trace shapes, patterns, leaves, lines. Nothing needs to mean anything. What's happening is that the restless mind is being given something gentle to do, so the heart can stay open before God rather than fighting the silence.

Reflect. After a few minutes, pause. What do you notice? What word or image kept returning? Write one sentence. That's enough.

That's it. That's the practice. Doodling doesn't compete with prayer — it can become a quiet rail for returning your attention to God.

A Moment That Stays With Me

I remember sitting with my own scattered thoughts one morning, pen in hand, not knowing what to pray. I wasn't in a beautiful creative flow. I was tired, a little undone, and honestly not sure God was listening.

I just started moving the pen. Small circles. Then something that looked like a leaf. Then without really planning it, I wrote one word in the middle of the page: held.

And something in my body released.

Not dramatically. Not with a vision or a word from heaven. Just... a quiet knowing that I hadn't needed to arrive with anything prepared. I just needed to come.

That moment is why I believe in this practice. Not because it's clever. Because it's honest.

If Grief Is Making the Silence Harder

For some of you reading this, the scattered mind isn't just about everyday busyness. It's grief. The kind that makes it hard to sit still because sitting still means feeling, and feeling means facing something you're not sure you're ready to face.

If that's you, I want you to know about the Grief Pages Workshop — a free, gentle gathering inside Creative Sanctuary where we hold space for the hard seasons through prayer, creativity, and honest community.

You don't need to have your thoughts together to come. You don't need to be okay. You just need to come as you are.

👉 You can join us here: https://creativesoulspace.com/griefpages

Your gentle next step

If this post has stirred something in you... if you are tired of trying harder, and ready for a prayer method that actually meets you where you are... Doodle with God might be the small, unhurried doorway you have been looking for.

It is 7 dollars. It is gentle. And it might just be the practice that helps you finally hear Him.

→ Start here: https://creativesoulspace.com/quiet

Take a breath, friend. Pick up your pen.

He is already waiting.

[Save your free place here → creativesoulspace.com/griefpages]

And if you'd like a gentle daily creative practice to bring you back to yourself... Doodle with God is waiting for you. No skill needed, no special supplies — just you, a pen, and five quiet minutes with God.

P.S. Those who sign up to the workshop and attend live will get the accompanying workbook

A Space to Bring Your Whole Self

If your soul is quietly telling you that it needs more than another quiet time routine… that it needs space, rest, and a completely different kind of encounter with God…

I want to tell you about something I'm creating for a small group of women this September.

From the 25th to the 28th of September 2026, I'm hosting a luxury creative retreat on the Isle of Wight — three nights at a beautiful farm in Ryde, fully catered, with no agenda except to slow down and hear God again.

We'll spend our days art journaling, sketching, and exploring. We'll visit Osborne House — Queen Victoria's summer home on the island. She was herself a keen artist, and there's something quietly extraordinary about standing in the rooms where she created, as women who are finding their own creative voice.

My partner Adam will lead worship. My son Toby, a fine art photography student, will capture the retreat. Our chef Katrina Collins will feed us extraordinarily well.

It is intentionally small. Intentionally unhurried. Intentionally a space where your prayers don't need to be words.

If your heart lifted a little reading that — pay attention to that lift.

🔗 Find out more about the Isle of Wight Retreat here: creativesoulspace.com/retreat2026

And if you're not quite ready for a retreat but want to begin doodling with God today, start here: creativesoulspace.com/quiet — it's just $7 and it's the gentlest possible first step.

Come and find me at https://christianartjournaling.com/creative2026 ~ there's a whole community of women here who are finding their way back to God, one mark at a time.