"Prayer and self-identity". 
The "mindfullness" process, so healing seems so incomplete. It might even be misleading if - as with dogma - taken literally.
"Concentrate on your breath, your breathing..." yes, go into yourself focus. If I find only myself I am either incomplete or lost. I realize that I can only "feel", "experience" my breathing because I am united, I am connected, I am dependent, on other....whether air, person, thing, some, all...the unknown.  For me - thanks to where I have come from and where I am going - the unknown is God. Because of "where I have come from" I seek to find the "Unknown" as the "Unknown" has graced me through Jesus: as "me". As "me" grows so grows love, the prayer.
For me there is no contradiction between "self-identity" and prayer. There is no prayer without self-identity.
"Empty yourself" means something totally different to me than I was "taught".
Self-identity and prayer - "sum"