When you speak in tongues, what do you think about?
Do you think about prayer needs or do you find your mind wandering but you're still praying in tongues? Sometimes my mind wanders and it scares me that I'm doing it wrong.
Sometimes, I am focused on the subject of the prayer but from my heart I lack the words to express what I want to. What happens then (for me personally) is I get a 'welling/bubbling' in my upper stomach area which rises until it comes out of my mouth in the form of my prayer language.
I've had different instances when doing such prayer - my mind tends not to wander, instead it's like my logical side of my mind (being an ex Baptist lol) gets carried along, lol. Hard to explain. For example, when worshiping every ounce of my being knows that I am praising the Lord and yet it's as though I'm marvelling at the fact that my spirit is singing in tongues. Or the other day in the car, I lacked the words to pray for something that was troubling me but I pressed on praying in English - the next thing the conversation continues except I am praying in tongues but my mind is observing/listening to the tongues and thinking "oooh! That sounds almost like some kind of Middle Eastern dialect". I guess what I'm trying to say is that initially as with any language you get to say things your way
When I first began praying in tongues, I was prostrate on my living room floor and I recall praying for a user on CF who was struggling with a personal issue. I think in that instance I lost track of time. When I was finished I'd been praying for a good 45 minutes straight. And yet all that I recall was that the language was bold as though I was fighting for something. I lost track of my surroundings because I was focused on praying for this person. That might be what you're experiencing?
The main thing is that each person can be different which is where we have the Word of God. I would pray in English (ie your native tongue) and lay your concerns at his feet as he hasn't given us a spirit of fear (see 1 Timothy 1:7). So try to lay any inhibitions to Him in prayer.
I feel and still feel quite inhibited about praying in tongues at church - in spite of the believers around me doing so - due to me not sounding like they do. But on praying about it, what I got back was that I was doing just fine. Hopefully the same will be for you too. xx
