My inbox has been bulging since the political conventions. Mostly the emails are some mix of scornful, angry, funny and totally freaked, but one arrived yesterday with a very different message. It was a request for prayers for a candidate. It read:

"______ has requested prayers for himself and his family during this challenging season of his life."

Dear God, I pray for optimum health, wisdom, mental clarity and political prosperity for ______, and for his protection as he seeks to become our president. Amen.

Thank heaven the conversation is shifting away from personalities, but thinking about it rationally, why should we limit our prayers to one candidate? Don't both candidates need all the help they can get?

Of course I passionately hope the candidate I believe in will win, and you bet I'll do what I can to help make it happen. But pray for "the other guy"? Ouch.

Still, I can do that. For starters, I can pray that the other candidate finds something else that he wants to do with his life (LOL). But that seems like kind of a wasted prayer. What would make more sense is to pray that he become increasingly wise, compassionate, and concerned with the highest possible good for all concerned... just in case he gets elected.

As for my candidate of choice, I'm happy to say those words or some variation a hundred times a day. It certainly beats whining and worrying.

Rather than praying to a particular Higher Power, however, I'm a big fan of affirmations. The way it works is that you affirm that something is true, or at least becoming true, visualizing it in detail. So in this case, I would "see" the person as wise and grounded, and visualize him being sworn in, or sitting in the Oval Office. Visualizing him strolling around the White House wouldn't be specific enough; we don't want the universe to think he's just on the guest list!

I once asked Shakti Gawain, who popularized affirmations many years ago with her book titled Creative Visualization, if she still actually uses affirmations. She said she does, but not so much any more. She's realized that if she really wants to create something in her life, she has only to make the universe aware of it and it will begin to manifest.

So let's pray for both candidates, but let's also be sure to let the universe know who we think will be the best president.

Photo credit: Tom Hilton