Using our bodies in our worship and prayer helps us to enter into that worship and prayer all the more deeply. You may be familiar with Christians of various traditions making the sign of the cross on themselves by touching their forehead then their chest then their shoulders. There's another form of making the sign of the cross that involves making three little crosses on yourself in three different places. Have you come across it?
In more catholic Anglican churches, when the priest prepares to read the Gospel passage in the Holy Communion service, several of the worshippers might use their thumb to mark a tiny cross shape on their forehead, then their lips, then their chest before they hear the passage read out to them. This gesture-prayer is a way of praying, "May Christ be in my thinking and in my speaking and in my heart and motives." It's a beautiful little prayer than encompasses all of life.
In fact, this little gesture prayer needn't only be used in a service. You might find that it's a helpful and beautiful thing to do at the beginning of each day. You might find it helpful each morning to make a little cross shape on your forehead and lips and heart to make the same prayer about your day ahead. You might also make a little cross on your hands as a way of praying that Christ will be in all your actions too.
Our prayer life and our daily life should be intertwined. If you find gestures a helpful way of praying, you might find making little crosses during your daily life a spiritually enriching thing to do. I've sometimes found it helpful to make the sign of the cross on my forehead when I'm asking God to help me think when I'm at work. In one of my past jobs I found it helpful to make the sign of the cross on my lips as I picked up the phone as a way of praying that Christ would be in my words during the phone call.
When you start a task you might find it helpful to make a little sign of the cross on something in front of you as a way of dedicating the task to God and asking for Jesus' help with it. If you're doing a practical task, you might make a little sign of the cross on or over an object in front of you. If you're working on emails, with each new email you write you might make a tiny shape of the cross on your computer screen or keyboard (obviously it might cause problems if you actually touch the screen to make the sign of the cross if you're using a touch-screen device!). It's just a little way of praying that God will be in the words you write or in your response.
Even if we've already prayed at the start of the day that God will be in all our speaking and actions, sometimes we need little helps to stay mindful and in tune with God throughout the day. Our morning prayer time should be woven into the rest of our day.
Another way of using little crosses in your prayer life is as a form of intercession. I know some Christians who, as they read news articles, make a tiny shape of the cross with their thumb over the story as a way of commending that situation to Jesus.You might develop your own ways of using little thumb crosses in your life.
Why not have a go at some of the ideas above and see whether little thumb crosses enrich your prayer life...