Davening (prayer) is like life.  It has its up and downs.  But to paraphrase the Talmudic principle in Makkos, that a downfall for the purpose of uplift can teach you many lessons.  Think trampoline, without sinking you can never really go up. If you find yourself uninspired, looking for a little change, a little more inspiration, or worse you find yourself finishing Shemonah Esra before the leader every time and waste those moments before he starts looking at your cell phone or talking to the guy next to you. 

The following 5 techniques for Shemonah Esrei Amidah prayer which is said 3x a day let me concentrate and think about Hashem.  It give me an opportunity to know what am I actually saying rather than suffering from OHD (obsessive Halachik disorder) where I cease to serve G-d but rather am acting from habit. 

1. Before saying the bracha, stop and breath in and out.

2.In between brachas, skim the English before reading the Hebrew.

3. Start from the first blessing and every day focus on one in particular.  Think about what they mean, add personal prayers dealing with that particular prayer in Shema Tefilah and at the end of the Shemonah Esrei before you take your 3 steps,

4. For the more intense types or those davening by yourself (you never want to distract your fellow minyan mates), right before saying the prayer you are focusing on that day or at the very beginning of Shemonah Esrei, completely breath out.  Exhale until you are completely out of breath and then as you are first refilling your lungs with Hashem's sweet oxygen, thank Him for that mentally.  Then right before taking your 3 steps out of Shemonah Esrei, start to list all the basic things you get every single day for free.

5. I particularly liked this one, go to this site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_infectious_diseases  or this one http://www.cdc.gov/DiseasesConditions/ print it out, then pick up the list and thank Hashem for every one you, your loved ones, Am Israel, and the world is not afflicted with most of them and ask that Hashem lovingly with kindness cure those who are suffering from the diseases on that list. 

You will come to such a love of Hashem that your davening will never be the same.  May you be blessed and continue to grow from strength to strength. 

by Ben Clayman