Perhaps the most difficult practice of Judaism has been prayer for me. What makes prayer so difficult for me is that we are encouraged to daven with intention. Prayer without intention is often compared to a bird without a wing - neigher of them can't fly. For this and incessant foreign thoughts during prayer I used to be obsessed with this encouragement, until I recently read Illuminated Sound: The Baal Shem Tov on Prayer by Rabbi DovBer Pinson. This book - especially the following three passages - has revolutionalized my prayer since then:
"The Chidush/novelty of the Baal Shem's teaching, [...], is that he strongly encourages us to focus on our Kavanah ['intention' - TS] just before we recite the words of Davening, and then, when we are vocalizing the words, we should drop any intellectual formula and just be present in the resonance of the words themselves. In the Baal Shem's approach to Kavanah, the intention should illuminate what is about to be said, and then the words should be pronounced without any 'thought' whatsoever."
"If I am engaged in intellectually dissecting the information even while they are talking, my Da'as/awareness and presence is caught up in an egoic pursuit. In fact, if one is caught up in the meaning of their own words as they are speaking them, they will not be present in them either, and perhaps even become too self-conscious to speak."
"Whatever meaning you construct in your limited understanding pales in comparison to what truly lies within the sacred, holy and light-filled words of Tefilah ['prayer' - TS]. If you are thinking about a particular Kavanah ['intention' - TS] while reciting them, you are limiting their true capacity, because then the words only mean what you think they mean, from your limited perspective, and not what they really mean on their own. If, however, you are simply saying the words of Davening without any personal, subjective, and limiting understanding of what they mean, then the words retain their maximum and Infinite potential."
I've been liberated from the above mentioned obsession of mine. I realize now that whatever intention I have in mind during prayer, it will always be partial. So I simply immerse myself in the sounds of the words of prayer I recite instead.
This shift is parallel to my previous shift in my daily practice of meditation before davening - from mindfulness meditation to what Adyashanti calls "true meditation". The common denominator between this latter meditation and prayer according to Baal Shem Tov is that you simply flow and let go of any artificial effort to control your meditation/prayer.
I shared this revolutionary teaching with my study partner of Tanya, "the written Torah of Chassidus". He also told me that it has revolutionalized his daily prayer. If you also find it difficult to daven, please try this method. What I have in mind is Jewish prayer from a siddur ('prayer book'), so doesn't apply to spontaneous prayer, which often comes from our temporary egoic desires.