God is always speaking to us. One reason we worry, feel fear and experience disjointedness and confusion is that we don’t realize that the answers to our questions and the balm for our suffering are right in front of us—or, perhaps more accurately, right inside of us. Healing often begins when we quiet the noise around us and listen to God’s gentle voice.

The simple act of being still in God’s presence allows God’s healing grace to flow through us. And yet, we often don’t hear God speaking to us. And why is that? Because most of the time we don’t quiet our own noise. Have you ever tried to listen to two conversations at once? It’s nearly impossible. You get fragments of each and neither makes sense. Now, call to mind what it’s like to try to listen in on two conversations while you are talking to someone else. You can’t even understand the person you’re talking to! You might protest: I’m a quiet person. I’m respectful. I don’t interrupt. And I’m a good listener. So why can’t I hear God?

It’s because even if we’re not vocalizing, our minds often are racing with ideas, questions, worries and details, details, details. Some of the quietest people—the great introverts of the world—have the most clamorous minds.

Try the following experiment:

1. Find a watch or clock with a second hand.

2. Take a few moments to relax. Breathe deeply.

3. Try not to think about anything for ten seconds.

Did you think of something? Of course you did. It’s almost impossible to halt the unceasing stream of thoughts that runs through your mind. Thinking is a perpetually ongoing state of being, and for some of us it becomes overthinking, a very bad habit indeed.

But, you protest (and rightly so), constantly thinking, speaking and doing are part of life. If I’m constantly drowning out God with my own personal white noise—how can I center myself enough to hear God’s voice? Isn’t prayer about talking to God? Again, you’re not wrong. Almost everyone believes that prayer is communicating with God. And that is true. But listening is also a vital part of conversation.

Prayer is not just the conversation, but it is also a tool for preparing your mind, body and soul for a state of being in which you can communicate with God, often in a nonverbal way. It’s a way of quieting your restless heart, mind and soul so that you can focus your whole attention on God and bask in an experience of unity without thoughts, without words, without expectations.

One of the best ways to reach this state is through repetitious prayer like the rosary. The combination of repeating prayers and allowing space and time for meditation has the effect of calming our minds. We just need to shift our attention from thinking to listening. There’s no room here for worried thoughts. In this new space, we naturally surrender to God, who will feed and care for and protect us. God who loves us so much that he has given us not only his Son but also the mother of his Beloved.

The rosary is not the only prayer to help you hear God, but for me it has been the most effective. We go through life not living in the moment—a phrase that has become a cliché in self-help circles. Motivational gurus tell us that living in the moment makes us happier and more fulfilled. I subscribe to this advice because I have learned through experience that when we are not living in the moment, we miss out on the gift of presence.

I can say this with authority because I am a worrier. I’ve been a worrier all my life. I spend a lot of mental energy rewinding the past and worrying about the future. I am almost never in the absolute here and now. But this describes pre-rosary Gary Jansen. The rosary helps me change all of that by helping me move closer to the present, thereby moving me closer to the kingdom of God, which is at hand, right here, right now. Perhaps most important, the prayer refocuses my attention away from my anxieties and toward the face of Christ, where there are no words, just an experience of being present with beauty.

The rosary is a spiritual exercise, yes, but part of its power arises from physiological experience. The structure of repetition and a focus on meditation—which is nothing more than observing a scene without attaching words to it, allowing thoughts to pass by like clouds in the sky, without judgment or analysis—have a soothing effect on the body. The combination helps to regulate breathing, reduce stress and relax muscles. A friend of mine once berated himself for falling asleep while saying the rosary. But why should he be upset? He should be thankful. As Pope Francis has said, falling asleep in the arms of God is a precious blessing.

The more you practice the prayer, exploring how the mysteries relate to your life, the more your day-to-day worries will be eclipsed by the life of Christ. Even though you are doing several things at once—fingering a bead, saying a prayer, contemplating a mystery—your eyes and ears grow more attuned to God. You begin to wake up spiritually. There will be times of silence in between thoughts and words, and in that silence your awareness of the people and things around you will expand. You’ll have more appreciation for creation. You’ll feel more alive as you begin to see yourself as part of the holy presence you seek.

You might wonder how reciting prayers during the rosary can qualify as being quiet. It’s because saying these prayers silences thoughts that crowd your mind. The more you pray, the more automatic each prayer becomes. The words, while important, are secondary to the prayerfully meditative experience, where we aim to refocus on God. After all, Jesus made it clear that God knows our words even before they are born in our minds and expressed in our hearts.

The turning of our gaze to Christ helps us understand our true needs in life. God already knows what these needs are, but we learn from our journey what we truly need, what we truly desire. Many people get frustrated and stop praying because they don’t sense that God is listening. I’ve experienced this myself. It can feel like a letdown, a silly exercise that reaps no rewards. But the rosary is sometimes like taking a multivitamin. Does anyone ever really feel better immediately after taking a multivitamin? Most people will feel nothing right away. And yet, over time those vitamins and minerals can have positive effects on your mind and body. We could say those ingredients fill in the gaps. So, too, does prayer.

Of course, there are the mystics and saints, who attest that we are never out of earshot of God. Our interpretations of feelings—that we are alone, or unworthy, or beyond help—may try to convince us otherwise. But feelings and their interpretations do not equate to truth. Feelings can change in an instant. You may feel happy one day, sad the next, confident one day, unsure the next. What has changed? Are you not the same person? Put another way, if God were to strip you of your doubts and your confidence, who would you be?

Imagine you want to talk to your friend, so you call him, but he doesn’t answer. You leave a message. A few days go by and your friend has not returned your call. You call again and leave another message. You follow up with a couple of texts. Days pass and still no return call. Not even a thumbs-up emoji. You feel confused—Why is my friend ignoring me? Then you get a little miffed. Why am I being ghosted? How rude of him! A few more days pass, and then, just when you least expect it, you receive a phone call. It’s your friend, apologizing for not calling back sooner, but reminding you that he had been out of town. You feel an arrow to your heart because you suddenly recall that you knew this; he had asked you to water his plants. Your anger evaporates. You felt as though you had been abandoned, but your friend had not abandoned you. You just weren’t paying attention.

As above, so below (see Mt 6:10). From what we know about how things work here on earth, we have a good indication of God’s ways. We have been given lots of clues about how God cares for us and is in it with us, no matter what. We just need to listen.

Gary Jansen is executive editor and director of new products and acquisitions for Loyola Press.